Something happened yesterday that restored my faith in humanity. It was my daughter’s twelfth birthday so we took her and five of her friends to a local ‘fun’ swimming pool (indoor, with flumes, fountains, and ‘the rapids’ - which is a meandering channel leading from one end of the main pool, joining back onto the other end, made to flow by jets and pumps)
Anyway, the girls all went off in a group to have fun, leaving my son (9) with me. He had lots of fun, but when there was about half an hour to go, he found a big floating mat (the size of a crash mat) and sat himself on the middle of it. The pool is not very deep anywhere, but he would have to stand on tiptoes to keep his face out of the water in most of the main part)
Some slightly older, larger boys came along and joined him - they were about to just pile onto the mat, but one of them said “no, wait! - be careful in case you knock him off” (I was observing from nearby, close enough to help if needed, but far enough away so as not to be noticed as interfering). So they all joined in the fun. It eventually turned into a massively boisterous pile-on, where ten or twelve boys were climbing over each other to try to get on a raft capable of supporting four of them - five at a push.
The raft was frequently overturned and there was often a big knot of thrashing limbs in the water, but every single time, one of the older children would take charge and make sure the little guy (my son) was OK, and would help him get back to the raft. It was immensely cheering to see such good-natured, but still rough-and-tumble fun happening.
So my faith in humanity and the potential goodness of the youth of today is restored. I may postpone my plans to destroy the whole world.
**This **is why I adore multi-age communal child rearing. Really and honestly, they only turn Lord of the Flies when they’re running in a pack at all the same age. When there are younger kids around, they’re (almost always) smarter and more considerate and capable!
The reason for this being so strikingly and refreshingly nice to my POV, though is that the bunch of kids around here (approximately the same age group as the kids at the pool) seem to view him as a puppet for any mischief they wish to enact, a scapegoat for any approaching blame, a target/proxy for the expression of any frustration they may be bottling up, and a victim for any cruel idea that may cross their minds. I can’t trust them out of my sight for a second.
That’s the difference between the local bullies and a group of stranger’s. Nobody has decided he’s a target and bored it into the other kids minds. It sounds like the party was a success for all.
Thank you so much for posting this! It’s great to see someone posting good things about young people these days, and feeling that perhaps it’s possible for our collective handbasket ride to take a short detour.
I think Harmonious Discord has a really interesting point – I never really thought about that before in that way.
I remember one time my son, about 8 then, was hanging out with my good friend’s much-older kid and his pals. They were both genders and about 17 or 18. They were playing a drinking game involving playing cards and a wine cooler.
They let my son play too, but they got him some root beer.
Mangetout, thanks. My faith in humankind needs frequent restoring.
That’s a great story. The next time someone starts frothing at the mouth and swearing that these horrible kids today are all worthless hellions, I’m going to give them a link to this.
Thank you. My eight year old refuses to move up a grade level at Sunday School, and I found out it’s because of a bully, who is now best pals with a kid who used to be Zack’s friend.
