Saturday, July 01, 2006

Airport playspace rules

(Corollary to Kristen's baby pool rules.)

1. If your child is 10 years old and dwarfs not only the other children playing nearby, but their mothers as well, she's probably too old/large for the play area, whether or not there is a sign nearby clearly stating that the area is for children 8 years old and younger.

2. If your child is jumping from the top of a 6-foot plastic slide onto a floor covered with a carpet approximately 2 microns thick, and all you do is laugh and tell your other child to get out of the way so her brother doesn't cannonball onto her: again, perhaps you all would be more comfortable at a play area suited to older children, or chimpanzees.

3. Let's define "under the supervision of a parent or adult caretaker," shall we? It means you should be within spitting distance of your child, not all the way across the interstate of a hallway running down the middle of the terminal. It means YOU, the "parent or adult," should be there, instead of leaving your younger child in the care of your 10-year-old (see rule #1) so she can chase him manically around the play structure, leaving a dozen terrified toddlers in her wake. And it means if you're on the phone while your kid is beating up another kid, HANG UP.

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So! Back from vacation. Missed you all. More soon!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have missed you! We need to catch up.

I might have been knocking heads were I at that airport playspace with you.

Lady M said...

I earned the ire of some older (too old) children at the mall playplace when I accidentally blocked their path of *leaping* from the "house" structure across to the "car" structure. There were three little ones playing on the house (including my son), and they were going to get trampled!

Anonymous said...

AMEN! Can we also make these rules valid for the mall play area, too -- sounds like Lady M would be in agreement with me.