So I was at the playground on Friday, because it was a beautiful day, and I got to witness my children interacting with the other youngsters. Now, I have seen Ruby playing with other children many times, but each time it is a revelation, because she keeps getting older for some reason, and the other children keep changing as well. On this day, she met a girl with whom she played for about 30 minutes, and at the end of it Ruby had no idea what this girl’s name was, but her birthday is on January 10th and she is five. Amazing what information they think to exchange.
But what struck me the most was Edward, because he was having a great time. He climbed up the play structure. He crawled across the bouncing bridge. He tried to eat a rock. And he had limited interaction with the other children. Mostly they wanted him to move out of the way of the bottom of the slide, but still, it was one of the first times I have seen him in that sort of environment. There was one boy specifically that seemed to be enjoying playing near Edward, and when it was time to go, I picked Edward up, and the boy shouted out “Bye Bye Baby Butthead!”
The boy’s father immediately reprimanded him, and I said nothing as I walked away. The problem here is that I didn’t know how to react. At first I thought it was a really funny thing to say. Props to the four year old for the alliteration, right? But then I got kind of mad. Why was he calling my kid a butthead? Even if Edward is often being a butthead (as in, literally butting me with his head as hard as possible, usually right on my own head while I am sleeping) that’s still no reason for such rudeness. And then I thought, well, who cares? Edward didn’t know what he said, and that kid probably calls everybody a butthead. He is probably in a butthead phase or something. No harm done really, other than to make me realize what I already knew, which is that Edward is only mine for a short time, and soon he will be out in the world, dealing with all the name-callers and real buttheads, and I am not going to be able to do anything about that. And I am at peace with that.
But mostly I thought it was pretty funny.