My son is almost two and has never seen the inside of a Walmart. He has never been to church, to a library event, or almost anywhere else that isn’t a family’s home.
He has been to several zoos. Zoos are mostly outside. And he’s been to multiple parks.
My son was born at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and had a respiratory issue when he was first born. I’m not sure how many times I held him while he gasped for air and I screamed for him to breathe. It was terrifying.
More than one doctor said that was “normal for C-section babies” and that’d “grow out of it by six months.” He has gotten better the older he gets, but it was well past his sixth month that we even had a hope that he’d be able to breathe normally. Just this week, we quit running the humidifier in his room anytime he slept to see how he’d do, and so far, he’s doing okay!
All this to say, the COVID-19 pandemic has made things more difficult for us. Because of his respiratory issue early on in life, we believe he is high risk for COVID and have sheltered at home more than most people. We’ve received a lot of flack from this on all sides, which has made it more difficult.
To stay sane, we needed to find a way to get out of the house.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I love our house and I know it’s a huge blessing. As humans, though, we were not created to be locked in a house all the time. Of course we go outside to play, but even that wasn’t enough.
We began chasing playgrounds.
We can tell you where all the public playgrounds are in our town. We can tell you which churches have playgrounds open to the public and which have locked fences around them. We can tell you that none of the schools around us have playgrounds accessible to the public. We can even tell you where the is a private playground that is accessible – it is so open to the public we didn’t know it was private the first few times we went! (And since learning it was private, we haven’t been back.)
My children have loved chasing playgrounds. Their faces light up and one of my son’s first words was “playground.” They’ve hit new developmental skills with each new type of playground they encounter. They see new sights, smell new smells, find new ways scare Mommy by almost falling.
Playgrounds can take a grey day and explode it into rays of sunshine. Playgrounds can take tears and turn them into smiles. Playgrounds can melt anger into laughter.
Playgrounds have also been a gateway into other friendships. Since playgrounds are outside, as the pandemic has dragged on, we have allowed our children to play with other children on playgrounds.
This gives our older child a chance to play with kids her own age, which is vital to her emotional well-being. She gets so excited when she sees other children playing on the playground. She’ll clap her hands together and shout, “I get to make new friends!” Sometimes she plays with them, sometimes she just watches. At the end of the day, she always talks about her new friends.
My kids often leave the playground dusty and smelling of sunshine and sweat. It’s a joy to me as a mama to be able to give my kids a time of laughter in the midst of swirling chaos.
Let’s go chase some playgrounds.