Not Back to School Picnic

Brooklyn homeschoolers united today with our Not Back to School Picnic. Its an interesting mix of homeschoolers and unschoolers with kids of all ages and a lot of nice parents. True to form, P wasn't yet interested in joining a large group of mostly strangers, so we ate and played with his good buddy M to get his social juices flowing. We ran and chased and kicked the ball around and then befriended a chatty 5 year old. Then he joined some other kids; they saved a bumble bee (that was perhaps mauled by a bear), jumped rope Brooklyn style and climbed the walls/staircase of the Picnic House. I Love playing with homeschoolers because they are so adept at speaking with adults and so wonderful with vertical age play. P seems to enjoy it too :)

After a few days of not napping, today was definitely a nap day. One of P's buddies arrived right as P realized he was really, really tired. He decided to nap in the Mei Tai while I chilled in the park so that he could play again when he woke up. After a brief snooze he was revitalized enough for more hummus, eggs and apples, followed by more ball kicking and car play. Then we brilliantly all started rolling down the hill... until mama said she was gonna puke :)

By then school was out and area teens started flocking to our space for a running race of some sort. A guy asked us to move a little bit, apparently the course would be right where we sat. One of the moms quietly disagreed, but we moved back 10 paces and kept talking and playing. Ten minutes passed and numerous teens started plowing through the area, sweating and panting. I glanced away and didn't notice little P step right out into the throng of runners. Fortunately my friend J did and I turned back to see her trying to pick P up as he adamantly tried to remain rooted to his original picnic place. I dashed to grab the seemingly silly kid and brought him back to our new space all the while explaining that these teens were running a race and I didn't want him to get trampled blah blah blah. Looking back this was a "duh" mama moment. He knew exactly what he was doing without my patronizing. With all of the talk and commotion he understood this was now a racecourse, he just disagreed. I'm assuming that standing in the middle of a small stampede didnt' feel very safe to him, but the invincibility of a 2 year old made him think that he could change the path of the entire race if he just stood his ground to reclaim "His spot."

I held him safely watching for a moment and then I put him down. I should have noticed his determined gaze before letting loose of him because I had no more than taken a breath before he had run right out into the fray. By now the race was left to the stragglers and they could as easily avoid the 2 year old as the tree 20 paces off, so feeling everyone was safe I stayed back and watched. He stood resolutely in his prior location, ever so slightly shifting his weight to challenge the runners that came closest to his position. The sight of 30 pounds proudly willing to take on 130 barrelling pounds seemed to sum up so much of his young life.

A couple of the nearby teens let me know what they thought of my parenting skills, instructing me to "strap that kid into a stroller." But breaking his enormous will hasn't ever been one of our goals. Phoenix has always made it clear that he feels himself to be deserving of as much respect as any adult around, including E and I. After a lot of reading and soul searching, we agree (of course making sure he's safe and so is everyone around him.) Granted, sometimes I'd love to pull out an easy "cuz I said so!" but he'd see the inconsistency in respect immediately. I would never, ever say such a thing to Ethan. And when you do your kid wrong, what does that show them about doing what's right? Might makes right? Your opinion doesn't count until you are X age? P innately knows that's not how the world should work and he's always willing to stand his ground for the cause. Hopefully we can support his autonomy AND help him to feel less territorial :)