Playground Problems

Living his Best Life.

My husband and I decided we wanted to start taking Roman, our two-year-old, to the store or playground everyday to help build his social skills. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but I soon realized it wasn't as easy as I thought or hoped.

One of the first trips to the park for Roman, he easily went down the slide by himself after my husband took him for the first trip.

So, this was one of the first trips to the park. My husband decided to take him on a whim after a trip to the store. They stopped quickly on their way home and no kids were there at the time.

My husband said he flourished. Ran around, yelling and climbing on everything he could reach. So we thought, okay, we need to take him back. So, we did.

Back at it Again.

So back we went the following day. It was a beautiful crisp fall evening, and the park was FULL of kids yelling, running and climbing in every direction.

At first, Roman was fine. He stayed in his own little world of going up the steps, and down the slide.

Roman proud of himself as he conquered the largest slide in the park.

In fact, he conquered the 8-foot-slide at the park, and couldn't help but go up and down, multiple times.

But as he started to get bored with the slide, I noticed he started to "wake up" to the noise and chaos on the playground. As I watched him try to navigate the running kids, I noticed him get overwhelmed.

Instead of taking off and running with them, he stopped in his tracks, and banged his head on the metal pole holding up part of the playground.

My husband and I both watched Roman start to meltdown. So we decided to pull him aside to a quiet part of the park, away from all the yelling and running.

The Quiet Place.

It worked. Getting him out of the noise, hustle and screaming of nearby kids, worked. He calmed down, played with myself and my husband, and when he was ready grabbed my hand to go back to the playground.

Back we went. And he continued to play.

What Happened?

You tell me. LOL.

I'm not sure if he was just overwhelmed by the noise and commotion because he hasn't had much of that type of interaction, if any at all in his two-and-a-half-years.

Leaving in Defeat.

All I know is I left feeling defeated. I kept thinking about the social skills my son was lacking, and wondering how much of it was my fault.

He's played, briefly, with an older child while at our house and just seemed to flourish. They chased one another, and he got on the floor with him and let him play with his toys. He even tried "talking" to him, albeit, no one understood what he was saying. So I really thought it would be so easy for him to socialize with other kids his own age. But boy, was I wrong.

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Please, feel free to reach out to me on social or email. I would love to hear your stories, share your stories on this platform, but also do the research and ask experts what we can do to give our kids the best future possible.