Bee's football practice is every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. For the time being, they are practicing at a "local" (I say that in quotations because it's 45 min from us...) park. The kids always ask if they can go play on the playground. Bee would let them run off, I am sure, under the sometimes watchful eye of "C", his 9 year old daughter. I know he trusts her, and 98% of the time, she is totally trustworthy as a babysitter. She is quite mature for her age. However, she is still a kid, and no matter how good or not good of a neighborhood (this one is suspect at best. I know the people in the white Escalade were selling drugs...) I don't feel comfortable to let two, well four because we had another player's kids with us, roam around free in a crowded area, without being supervised.
So, while he was playing with the big boys, I was watching the wee ones. I am surprised I made it through the evening without ending up in jail. For one, I feel that most of these parents are just plain inept. Now, it could be that most of them were around 18. However, I have seen this in older parents too. There are about 80 kids trying to play on this one jungle gym. Yes, it was a big one, but that's still a lot of children. Also, they are running around, outside, in shorts and tshirts because it's 80, and they are all wound up. There is pushing. Shoving. Line Cutting. And general mayhem. They are kids after all. But as I looked around at the few parents that WERE there, they were talking on their cell phones, hitting on guys that were there, chatting with the other parents, and generally just not paying attention.
When I take kids to the park, I have a few general rules. One: ALWAYS stay where you can see me. If you can't see me, chances are, I can't see you. If you want to go to another area of the park, come get me. We will go together. Two: Ladders are for climbing, Slides are for bottoms. We do not climb up the slide. Three: Speaking of the Slide, we only go feet first, and only when no other child is in the way. I watched poor little man sit at the top of the slide for ten minutes waiting for the kids to get off of the slide. A handful were sitting on the bottom. Two or three kept walking up the slide, and then would slide down it. Their mothers are watching, and not saying a word. Finally, I yelled over there for them to move so he could go down. After a few stares, they finally did.
"C" was off playing football in the field. I swear, give that girl a football and kids flock to her. Next thing you know, she has a pick-up game going and is off drawing plays in the dirt. That kid is going to go pro someday...that's if she doesn't discover some bad news boy she loves and gives up on all her dreams...But I think Bee would kill her if she did...
Later, little man wanted to go swing on the swings with me. Two little girls, perhaps around 3 or 4 walked over, by themselves, and asked if I could help them swing in the baby swings. I hoisted them in and proceeded to push them. I pushed those little girls, who were having a BLAST by the way, for over an hour. An HOUR. Not once did anyone come looking for them (the baby swings were hidden behind the big equipment. You can't see them from the benches). Not once did anyone call out their names. Not once did they say "Oh look! There's my mommy!". Not once did anyone say anything about a white girl pushing two little black girls in the swing...meanwhile, "C" and Little man never left my sight, and if they did, I was calling their names trying to find them instantly. After an hour, Bee's practice was almost done and I had to round up my two and get back over to the other side of the park. I asked the little girls if they wanted out of the swings....they said no...and were still just sitting there when we left to go to the practice field about 15 minutes later. Still no parent in sight.
I guess I don't really know why I am surprised. After all, like I said, most of the moms there were probably no older than 18. Most were over at the basketball Court flirting with the boys playing hoops. It's 80 degrees and they are at the park, with their toddlers and little kids, dressed up like it's a dance club. I saw one girl with 4 inch fake nails and 5 inch hot pink stiletto heels trying to chase after an 18 month old. And another girl who was, I'm guessing 5'3 and 260lbs wearing neon green shiny spandex leggings and a tube top and smoking a black and mild. Her little girl asked to be put in the swing and her mothers response was "God Damn you little Niggas. Always wanting shit from me! Can't you see, I'm busy?!" (She was on her cell phone with her "Boo".)
One kind of awkward situation this did bring up, is when the kids saw me playing with Little Man and "C", they would ask them "Is that your mom?" or they would ask me "Is that your daughter? Your son?" Now, to an adult, I would respond "No. I am their dad's girlfriend", but to a child? How do you explain that? I don't want to say I am their Step Mom, because I am not just yet and I don't want to put that word in the kid's mouths just yet. I am not their mom. And while silly, it kinda hurts my feelings when the kids say "She's our babysitter". I know they know I am more than that..but it quelches the question and neither one of us have to explain it any further...but I am more than that...and I want to make sure they know that too. I don't know. Have to figure something out on that...
Ghetto or not, bad parenting or not, we had fun. The weather was nice, and everyone enjoyed being outside in the fresh air!
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