I love to take Baby Bear to free places to play and run around even if the weather is bad so she can have fun and get exercise. Around us there are a couple places that I can take her to like a McDonald's play place (even though we don't eat there) or the mall play area.
The mall play area is always really busy with lots of kids running around. I like to be about to walk around to, so it is a win-win for both Baby Bear, Mini and I. Plus we are so lucky and Baby Bear does not run around like crazy in public areas. She stays pretty close to us when we are out so it is not so hard to take her to the mall to walk around.
There are a few reasons that I like taking her to a place like this. The first reason is that Baby Bear will play around by herself while I chat with other moms and watch and she starts to make friends with kids that are total strangers of all shapes sizes and colors. Since she is only 2, I think this is a great quality for her to develop. She plays alone since that is what all the kids are doing and then eventually she ends of running around playing with someone. Usually an older boy (I know I am already in trouble when she gets older!!) She did this even before she could speak so well.
There are also things that I really DON'T like about the mall play grounds. There are lots of icky snotty kids (we ain't afraid of no germs). There are big kids that disobey the height and age rule and get a little bit crazy. If they are really out of hand, I usually ask them their age and tell them they are too old to play. They walk over to their parents and I usually get a dirty look as the walk out.
Even worse then the big kids are the Pushers, the little kids that go around terrorizing the other little kids while their parents just sit and watch.
I decided that I actually think that these badly behaved kids are OK. The kids all playing learn how to share together and how to deal with all different kinds of people, good and bad. They also learn how to stick up for themselves and eventually make it onto the toy that they want or to the top of the slide so that they can slide down. Hopefully they will also learn how to take turns and wait in line.
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