Today, among other days, I find myself conflicted about the park. Here at the daycare on sunny (or more or less nice) days we go to the park down the road. It has all the things a park should have. Slides, swings, monkey bars, things to climb on, things to spin on,and  things to zip down on. All good and fun things.

So what is my conflict you might ask? Is it safety? No I am of the opinion that a few bumps, scratches and bruises are a good thing. So if under my watchful eye one of the kids comes down the slide a little fast, lands on their bum instead of their feet, well that is just life. Such a bump to the bottom I assume will encourage them to more carefully put out their feet.

The conflict is the work. Now to be clear I like taking my son to the park. What I feel conflicted about is taking four kids to the park. The work, or more accurately the battle to get everyone dressed and ready is just tremendous. If it is not snowsuits, its splash pants and rain boots; if not either of those we’re into sunscreen and bug spray. This is on top of all the potty trips before we start to get dressed, and the incredible amount of work it takes to keep the kids in one spot while you work on one of the other ones. It seems as soon as I zip up the jacket of one child and move on to the next, the one I finished is running circles in the playroom with muddy shoes.

I kid you not as the clock ticks towards the end of snack time and the beginning of park prep time I can feel my stress levels rise.

So what is the point of this blog you might ask? Mostly awareness. If you take your child to the park and you see that one lone stay at home day care provider playing with their smartphone while the kids play please try to understand them. Do not disdain her (or in the rare case as myself him) believe me they earned that right to have one eye on Angry Birds and one on the slide. They fought the battle, they won, the kids made it to the park.