Riding on Bicycles with Boys

Lately, there seems to be an ongoing debate (no, for one moment we are not talking about what feels like a 7 year long United States Presidential debate) asking the question, are children these days overprotected?  There are always two sides to the story – unless I am telling the story, then my side is the only side. 

A few weeks ago I attended the “Illuminasia – Lantern and Garden Festival” at the Zoo. Authentic Chinese animal lanterns lit up the zoo (who could have saw that one coming?) The most ironic part of the experience is that we did not see many real animals. Animal activists would have enjoyed the Zoo for once. 

As we arrived, we were informed that the “family show” would be beginning soon. I accompanied a friend and her Mom, so it only seemed appropriate. 

The play was called “The Monkey Princess” – I think. I became confused the moment I realized there was not any dialogue. It was difficult to follow even for us educated, cultural, and over the age of 3 viewers. It became evident that we were at the “family” show when the very violent scenes erupted. 

The high karate kicks and quick slaps to the face were altered into tickling and wet willies…Personally I would rather be kicked than tickled – but, if you tickle my feet, you will be kicked, so I can see how they go hand in hand. 

I grew up watching the Ninja Turtles slay others in gruesome battles, the Power Rangers stabbing robots, Bugs Bunny shooting an audience member for coughing during his piano performance and I turned out somewhat normal.

Society can try their darnedest to protect children, but every child has access to information at the push of a button, whether it it is on a mobile device, video game or YouTube. It is much easier to find this information now-a-days than it was when scholars had to scan the library and we do not have an invisible cloak like Harry Potter to secretly locate the real juicy stuff (yes, that is my second Harry Potter reference in 2 weeks). Now, it takes one second to ask Google if Santa Claus is real (I have avoided this because I refuse to know the truth). 

As I reminisce about my childhood, the kids at the Parks Play Program once again come to mind with their beautiful, innocent, naive minds. 

In Can Take Me Out, but Can’t Dress Me Up, I was called out on my style. In this story, a young boy called me out on my relationship status.

Some office jobs allow us to ease into the work day. You know, chat with a couple co-workers to see how their weekend was, pour a cup of coffee and scroll through Instagram. When working with kids, they arrive at 8:00am with the energy needed to run a marathon.

One morning I was not quite on their level yet and needed a little pick-me-up, so a friend of mine (a male friend) dropped by to deliver a coffee. The way to a woman’s heart is caffeine, especially when that woman is about to play with 50 kids. Well this had the kids talking; It seemed to be the hot gossip on the playground. 

One particular boy (who stole my heart without caffeine) had the courage to ask if that man was my boyfriend. When I reassured him that he was a good friend, the young boy replied, “phew, I was worried.”

I asked if he had a girlfriend and he informed me that his Mom had told him that he was not allowed to date until he was 16 years of age. 

I stated, “wow, by 16 you’re going to have girls falling all over you.”

Prince Charming’s response?

“They already are.” 

We have a heart breaker on our hands… hide your kids!

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