Eventful Day at the Park
I guess I knew it had to happen sooner or later, but I’ve been dreading the day that Robin learns how mean other kids can be. He’s nothing but the soul of sweetness himself: I think since he doesn’t see other kids regularly, he’s always just delighted to get a chance to play, and he’s very friendly and downright eager to share his toys. Today when we got to the park there were a bunch of other little boys—two just about his age and one littler. Robin was thrilled and immediately grabbed his truck and trotted over to the nearest kid, offering to share.
However this little boy was shy, and his dad commented that he has the same truck at home (it is quite popular around here), so Robin’s maneuver wasn’t the successful ice-breaker that he’d intended. The other boy—his name was Owen—wouldn’t say “hi” even at his dad’s prompting, and in fact kept turning to put his back to Robin. This was fine; I just explained to Robin that Owen was feeling shy and suggested that we move on.
So Robin took his truck and went up to the other little boy, who was playing in the sandbox. Robin smiled and held out his truck. The other boy scowled and threw a cup full of sand straight into Robin’s face.
Robin wailed, of course. His eyes were crusted with sand and he immediately rubbed them, which only made things worse. The other parents made their horrible little monster say he was sorry and then hastily packed him up and left the park, possibly because I might have murdered him if he remained within reach. It was just awful. My little boy was being so friendly and so nice and here he was, hurt for no cause, just because some other kid was a little jackass.
I got the sand out of Robin’s eyes as best I could, and assured him over and over that he’d been good and I was so sorry for what had happened. And he bounced back, as three year olds do. Owen’s dad came over and commiserated, and the littlest boy—who, as it turned out, was Owen’s little brother Patrick—came over to show Robin his ball. So Robin played with Patrick for a bit, and watching them Owen got over his shyness, until by the end of our time at the park Owen and Robin were running all around like the best of friends. In fact as we were getting read to leave Owen said, “Maybe I could have a playdate with Robin?” And his dad agreed that sounded like a good idea, so I gave him our phone number. So it all ended well for Robin, but it was a pretty difficult episode nonetheless.
I hope Owen’s dad does call. (He does in fact have a name of his own, which is Michael, but his slot in my brain is “Owen’s dad.”) Owen was a real nice kid, and his birthday is within a month of Robin’s, and his family lives nearby. It would be awfully nice for Robin to have a neighborhood friend.
