Wandering through a park, I noticed a little boy propelling his vehicle towards the front of this structure. He was looking behind him as if someone was following him.
“Where is your mama?” I was wondering. He seemed to be entirely alone, but not lost or distraught.
And what was that boxy blue structure?
When I saw the teenager on his skateboard, it all fell into place – a skatepark with a half-pipe.
But who did the little boy belong to?
By now, he had circled around the structure to the front.
A second boy appeared inside the half-pipe. The little guy watched intently but received no eye contact from the older boy.
The two older boys were busy perfecting their sport. After all, you have to concentrate skating angular walls.
So the little boy kept on circling the structure again – unsupervised by the older boys who, undoubtedly, had been charged with taking care of him. If his mama only knew how independent he was, and how capable of entertaining himself!
Angles, curves, and boys…. altogether in the skatepark. Would you pay them for babysitting YOUR toddler?
More angular takes at the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge.
Not if I knew how little attention they paid to the little one. Pay should be commensurate with due diligence.
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We never know what goes on with our children when we give them into the care of others…
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Parents these days! 😉 Go figure! Great take on the challenge!
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Thanks for stopping by…
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Independence is such a valuable skill to gain….and so few opportunities now. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise?
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I am sure this little boy is learning very quickly to become self-reliant if he has to tag along with his older brother(s) like this. However, I hope that others in his life take better care of him. As you know, sometimes there is a thin line between allowing kids to become self-reliant and independent vs. overprotecting them vs. neglecting them.
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Indeed
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Oh dear how worrying, anyone could run off with him.
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This skate park is in a very small town, so the danger of that would be slim. My concern would be more along the lines of him stepping in broken glass or finding some (addict) needles (which is what happened on the playground of a pre-school my daughter attended when she was very young).
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I have two kids and we never once had a babysitter for our kids!
I did a lot of babysitting when I was a teen. Maybe that’s why I never had a babysitter for my own. lol 😦 On the other hand it was probably because we were too poor to have one.
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It was always difficult for me to leave my daughter with babysitters, but I often had no choice.
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I know we do the best we can and hope for the best. 🙂
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So true, Lady.
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I don’t think I’d pay them to babysit either, but that little boy sure has a cool bike. 🙂
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I thought so too, Debbie. I had never seen such a contraption before…sturdier than a tricycle and giving those little legs a good workout.
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I just want to grab that little toddler up safely in my arms! He could just wander away as those older boys do their thing. aaarrrggghhhh
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Maternal instincts whisper…
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Little boys always follow the big boys around who are irritated with them following and ignore them. I am sure they would stop him from entering the skate zone if he is their brother:)
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I do think children learn different things from older boys than they do from older girls, which is as it should be…
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I think that little boy should have had proper adult supervision. Teenagers having fun on skateboards does not translate into ideal baby watchers. It’s not fair of the parents to give them that sort of responsibility. Good pics for the challenge, Annette. 🙂
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Maybe I’m from another planet, but I don’t see a problem here. Did anything bad happen? If not, maybe we are watching too much TV.
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Hi Robin – no, nothing bad happened. But it was odd seeing that very young child circling that half-pipe with no one looking after him – many times. That being said, I do believe that kids need unsupervised and unstructured play time…just not yet at age 2 or 3.
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Hmm. 2 or 3? OK, I go along with that.
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