Play place police

Betcha didn't know there was such a thing. I didn't either. Until now. After graduation yesterday, we took the kids to the mall to play. It was pouring rain out, and we've been so busy packing and doing moving prep that our poor kids were desperate for some fun. It's a really fun play area with several cushier plastic things for the kids to climb on. And it's surrounded by a wall with only one way to get in or out, which makes it easy for the parents to sit back and relax while the kids play.

We get to the play area, and there's this mom there with her 3 kids. Her daughter was just younger than Cambria. This mother was completely hovering over her kids and didn't leave their side for 2 seconds. If they went down the slide, she climbed up the steps to watch them go down and then would rush over to the bottom of the slide to meet them as they came down. She followed their every move. It was just obnoxious watching her literally smother these poor kids. Let them breathe, explore, be kids for crying out loud.

But that's none of my business. Until she starts yelling at my kids, that is, and then her habits become my business. Big time. And I do mean yelling - as in, all the other parents stopped talking and just listened to this lady telling a 6 year old off. Kyrie started climbing up the slide to help Cambria go down the slide, and this mother went ballistic. She went off about how Kyrie was ruining the fun for all the other kids, was being "nasty and mean and trying to block the slide", was a "mean little girl", and then she proceeded to tell Kyrie she was going to tattle on her ("I'm going to tell your mom!"), as if we weren't already aware of the situation. It was just ridiculously overboard.

Yes, I do teach my kids to go up the stairs and down the slide, but I'm not going to get up and down a bajillion times to get them down every time they're climbing up the slide. That's just what kids do. There's something irresistible about climbing up the slide, and as long as there's no other kid waiting to go down, it doesn't bother me that much. I'll pick my battles.

Anyway, so I called Kyrie over to tell her that she was just fine, and that we would let her know if she was doing something inappropriate. Then I told her to just steer clear of this lady. I figured that would do the trick. Not so much. She was back down Kyrie's throat shortly after for yet another silly "infraction". I turned to Derk and said, a little too loudly (which I'm not apologizing for in the least), that I was confused as to when the mall hired Play Place Police and wondered where her badge was. Then he joked back that next she'd be handing out citations for climbing up the slide. She came over to us and said she wasn't trying to be rude to which I just rolled my eyes and told her my kids were just fine, thank you very much.

Kyrie's going through this (albeit slightly annoying) phase of wanting to "help" Cambria do nearly everything, so she kept picking her up to help her up the stairs and into the different play things. This annoys Bri a bit, but she's a good sport. This lady gave Kyrie a hard time about picking up a baby and told her to leave the baby alone. She shut up fast when I told her they were sisters and that Kyrie was just being a good big sister. Thank goodness.

She just had to stick her nose in one last time before we had it and had to leave. Our old neighbor arrived at the mall, so we started chatting with him for a bit. Cambria called for Daddy. As a parent, you can tell when your kid needs you and when they're okay to wait a minute or two while you finish up a conversation. Well, this was completely unacceptable to this lady, and she marched her rear over to where we were sitting and said, "Uh, EXCUSE me, but your daughter is calling for her Daddy!" Derk just looked at her and said very matter-of-factly, "She's just fine. I'll handle my own daughter." I guess she finally got the hint because she didn't say another word after that. What is it about men that just makes things so final and leaves no room for argument? I wish I had that power because it sure would have spared me a lot of headache through all that.

Derk kept telling me to relax, but I have to defend myself by saying it's "that time of the month", complete with all the wonderful symptoms, I'm sick with a head cold/sinus infection thing and was feeling pretty icky and wasn't in any mood to take any guff from some stranger. She's just lucky I was able to bite my tongue because her head was * this close to being completely severed. There is no greater pet peeve of mine than someone, especially a complete stranger, bossing my kids around. If I am present, I will handle it, thank you very much.