Things kids do! Most of the time they are hilarious. Parents probably don’t think so because they are…well…the parents :-). I am not a parent, so this post is my baffled, sometimes alarmed, and mostly amused view of things kids do.
The first thing is why kids, toddlers of around 2 to 3 like throwing themselves on the floor, and just lying there…anywhere! In shopping malls, the middle of supermarkets, on jettys…?!? Is it an age thing? Or is it because they need to feel the stability of the ground after all the running around and general mayhem causing?
My husband says it’s probably because they are already so close to the ground it’s easy to just throw themselves down and relax. Just like big people throw themselves onto couches to relax. My nephew just loves doing this. He is 3 and a bit. On his birthday I witnessed the funniest thing. It was thundering outside and he really doesn’t like thunder. As the thunder rolled and the rain came down heavily, he suddenly got up from playing on the floor, ran to the sliding door hands on the bars shouting “Oh no! Oh no! What’s that?”. Comes running back to the lounge hands over his ears and…yes…that’s right…THROWS HIMSELF ON THE FLOOR…on his stomach saying, “Ohhhhhhh…..!”. No tears, just on the floor, and “Ohhhhhhh…!” He was very serious about it!
The other thing kids love to do, and I haven’t found one that doesn’t, is play with water. Pool water is very tantalising and mysterious, it calls to them. When my cousin was little she was attracted to our pool, much to the alarmed shrieks of her parents who didn’t allow her outside at all. My nephew loves playing with water, especially fountain water. He loves scooping up handfuls of the green alagaed water and throwing it at whoever he’s with. You can imagine the horrified shouts of, “No, don’t do that,” much to his cheeky delighted laughter. He merely looks at you, knowingly, giggles naughtily and scoops up more handfuls of live organism infested water and throws it around once more.
The best birthday party for a child is one that revolves around a pool. For my niece’s 9th birthday party my sister had hired entertainment for the kids. But she needn’t have done. Kids made a beeline for the pool and had to be coaxed out to eat the cake, lol! Little heads bobbed up and down in the waves made by jumping kids. Periodically I counted the heads to make sure no one had disappeared under the water due to the energetic jumping in and dive bombing. The entertainment was forgotten, lolled around in boredom and left early.
Lastly, I still get caught by surprise by how still kids become when faced by a screen with moving figures across it. I never could understand why parents put their kids in front of the TV in the mornings. After babysitting a few times, I now know why. When you have to get breakfast on the table, lunches packed, kids dressed and yourself dressed and out of the house in less time than it takes a MotorGP race to complete, a parent has to find different coping techniques. And putting kids in front of the TV and out of the way to get things done is one such technique. I no longer judge parents who do this. Kids slow down and often go into trance-like states in front of the TV. I’m not so sure how good this is for developing brains but hey, it does the trick. A DVD player in the car is also a life-saver for any parent. It definitely minimises the “Are we there yet?” refrain. Until the end of the movie. Then it starts up again. And then a parent just reaches into the cubbyhole for the next movie, pops it in and the car is theirs again. Just make sure that you time the trip well and take the equivalent amount of movie time.
I am sure there are many other things kids do. If you think of any, send me a comment and it will be food for another post.
