First Day at the Playground: 2020
On the surface, it sounds like nothing special and not a noteworthy affair – but this morning, on July 25, 2020, we got to go and climb and drive and slide on the playground equipment for the first time this season.
With all of the COVID-19 precautions and closures, the playground equipment has been wrapped in caution tape with Closed signs nearby. However, on Friday as Pickering and the rest of Durham region entered Stage 3 of Ontario’s reopening, the tape came off!
There is a new sign near the equipment that advises folks to be careful and that the equipment is not being maintained/ supervised/ sanitized. It gives direction that folks should wash their hands with soap and water and/or use hand sanitizer – and that parents should make sure their children follow guidelines.
Now, we can all be honest with ourselves and agree that telling a toddler not to touch their face for the entire time that they’re playing on the equipment or on the walk home before a good hand wash. So I do recommend bringing some hand sanitizer with you if you’re going to have a climb and slide and play.
It was a little awkward at first with the playtime. For what feels like forever we’ve been avoiding the equipment or telling him that it’s closed and that he can’t play on it. So today, when I told him that he could it took a second for him to get into it. But then he was ready.
After climbing up the stairs for the first time we had another hurdle, Ollie remembering what to do and what he could do.
This is a little boy who loves to run and climb and play, but he was tentative about crossing the bridge that has some bounce to it. He was tentative about climbing up to the slides. And I was actually really surprised at how long it took him to even want to try to go down either of the two slides on the playground.
But, when he decided to cross the bridge and that he didn’t need my hand, he walked back and forth across it with confidence. When he figured out how to climb up to the twisty red slide, he went up and then down and then up again. And then when he trusted me enough to try the slides he was all-in and “weeeeeee” and claps when he hit the bottom.
It was a lot of fun to watch him smile and play and climb and slide. It was great to see him find his courage to cross the bridge, I was proud.
But most of all, I’m happy that Ollie gets one of his favourite good weather play options back. That we have one small piece of what he knew as normal life back. And that it only took a few minutes for him to get back into his comfort zone.
The world is still a mess. We all have to be safe. We all have to take care of ourselves and each other. But for a little while this morning, things were good and we were smiling and my little dude was on the playground equipment for the first time in 2020.
