kids just wanna have fun

I spent yesterday afternoon at the pool with a favorite little guy. It's a lot of fun being with Jack, even though it's my "work." I'm pretty sure the pool is Jack's favorite place to be in summer. His mom has worked hard at helping him become comfortable in the water. He loves to swim!

Well. The pool has a "zero entry" as it's now called. An edge like at the beach. And right near the edge are five fountains of water which shoot straight up. Jack loves to get right up to them and put his foot over one, and the water then shoots OUT, not UP. Not ten feet away is a line of low chairs, along the zero entry. The moms and grandmas love to sit there dipping their feet and watching the little ones. Yesterday Jack did his usual thing, taking perfect, if unintentional, aim at two grandmas sitting in the chairs, all nice and situated with their beach bags and towels.

"Oh, hey!" they squealed, pointing at Jack. "How dare he get us wet!" they seemed to say. I quickly put myself in the line of fire, between Jack and the women.

I wanted to laugh. But also yell, "You are at a POOL and you chose to sit by the FOUNTAINS where little ones play. You might get WET, so if you'd rather stay DRY, find another SEAT!"

Look, I'm all for teaching courtesy and manners to children. But I'm also for giving kids a long rope in having some uninhibited fun, particularly in places that are designed for kids to HAVE fun. So stuffy adults need to take their lovely bags, perfect hair-dos and bad attitudes out of the vicinity of a child's fun.

And I hope, as I age, I am never so stuffy that I forget what childhood is all about.