Yesterday was playgroup at my house. This was the first time all nine kids, 8 of them boys, were together. The kids ages ranged from 7 down to 5 months. It was loud but the kids had fun. We had two incidents that tested our diplomatic skills.
The mommies were in the living room chatting while the kids played in the playroom. I heard J-boy crying so I went in to investigate. An older child (6 years old) had taken away the blue Lego car from J-boy. I asked the older child to give it back he said no. I offered him the green Duplo car. I told him it wasn’t nice to take toys away from other kids. He told me “I’m on the blue team so I need to blue car” I said “Fair enough, you can put blue blocks on this other car.” He looked at me like I was an idiot.
At this point I had three options: 1. take the car away, causing a scene 2. get his mom 3. console J-boy by giving him the Duplo car and a big hug. I chose the third option. I know it was fair to J-boy but the child is a guest in our house and doesn’t play by our rules. Was it the easiest choice, you bettcha but J-boy seemed to be OK about it. I thought the issue closed.
Ten minutes later we heard J-boy was sobbing. All the parents went in this time. Apparently the older child had stopped playing with the car so J-boy went and grabbed it. When the older child spotted J-boy with the car he took it away. The older child’s mom was trying to get him to give the car back to J-boy when First Born stepped in and gave J-boy the yellow Lego car. First Born showed great initiative in solving the problem without an adult. J-boy and the older boy were happy and the rest of the play date was incident free.
Next week we are at the older kids house. I think it will be very interesting. Maybe First Born will have another chance to show his diplomatic talents.
Mommy Going Crazy 