On going up the slide.

I remember being so curious about this when I was a young Mum with two little boys under 3.

Why are they driven to do this? Why do all kids seem to want to do this? Over and over? Even when they’re being told ‘the slide is for going down’ or something similar.

We lived in a remote part of Western Australia and often had the playground to ourselves. So I stopped saying ‘you can’t do that’ and started saying ‘you can’t do that when other kids want to use the slide’. I started saying ‘check if anyone is wanting to come down before you go up’ and also ‘check if anyone is trying to climb up before you go down’.

Essentially ‘being aware of your surroundings and taking care of those around you is what makes a risky thing safer’.

That was a long time ago and I didn’t have the knowledge or understanding that I have now. I simply had my instinct and intuition. I had curiosity and I had a tendency to ask ‘but why?’.

Why can’t we use the slide in different ways? Why can’t we explore when we play on the slide?

Because it might, in some circumstances be dangerous. Because someone might, in some circumstances get hurt.

Then let’s look at what those circumstances are and let’s create some awareness around when it’s ok and when it’s not. About what we can do to make it a safer activity.

There is so much potential for learning and development in climbing up a slide and also so much potential learning in navigating a flexible and mindful boundary around doing it.

‘We can’t ever climb up the slide’ and rigid boundaries like it, that aim to prevent injury also prevent so much valuable learning. They also, in the case of parenting a strong willed, bodily-kinesthetically intelligent toddler create unnecessary conflict and relationship breakdown.

When we’re ‘picking our battles’ playing on the slide need not be one of the many battles in our days. Playing on the slide can be many other, much more positive things