Playground Manners

I nanny two great little kids N (4) and B (2), I feel lucky working with the family I do. I also feel lucky to be learning so much through the eyes of these little ones that I'll get to share with my own children someday.

Today after picking N up from preschool we took a trip to the playground. There were several other kids their age running around, enjoying the return of warm weather. I always love seeing their social little personalities come out in situations like this. N tends to make one or two new friends everywhere he goes, everytime we leave a new play area it's with a string of sad goodbyes to a new friend he probably won't see again, he has such a big heart. B rarely plays with any other one child, she is either off doing her own thing or part of bigger group.

Today was different, N was off running with a couple other boys as usual, but B was hunkered down in the middle of the jungle gym with her full concentration on trying to communicate with a little boy about her age. I could tell by his hearing aids and having seen him signing with his mother earlier that he had severe hearing problems, even with the aids he didn't always hear her and vocalized only in a series of grunts and yells. But here was B doing her best to make sense of the signs and the noises, and responding to whatever she thought he may have been saying as if she was talking to any other child. They spent most of the afternoon just sitting there talking.

It was such a powerful reminder of the acceptance that children have for each other at that young age, before bullying and stereotypes invade their innocent little minds. How once their minds are tainted with those things they never are fully washed clean again, even as adults who should know better. If only everyone could show the same kind of patience and understanding that B did for that little boy today when they encounter someone who is different than themselves.

Wouldn't it be nice if we all learned some playground manners?