Hangin' Out

At the playground, climbing and jumping with a preschool buddy Jonas. I didn’t think I’d be saying something like this, especially at their age, but his buddy is kind of a bad influence. He’s a squealer/screamer, which tends to get the other kids started. But even worse he’s a tackler: constantly tackling and jumping on Zane. For his part Zane will play rough and tackle back a bit, but there comes a time when it’s too much. He was trying to chase after a ball and every couple of feet, slam!, down on the ground. It wasn’t even a football, not that that would make any more sense at this age. Zane would struggle back to his feet, “want ball?” and start to head towards it, wham! and down he’d go again. I finally had to intervene just so he could get a breather. Meanwhile the other kid (Jonah) didn’t want to share the ball with anyone.

Earlier the boys all stood in front of another boy and screamed, waggling their fingers and grinning maniacally. The target of their craziness wasn’t enjoying the show at all and a parent stepped in to make them stop and apologize. Zane apologized to pretty much everyone except the kid in question.

Playground pre-schooler dynamics in action.