Suburb Saturdays Volume 10: What To Do If There Are Teens On A Little Kids Playground You Want To Use
This one is for the parents out there. As a father of two young kids (almost 4 and 1.5), I take my kids to the playground a lot. There is an elementary school around the corner the has three different play areas for different ages that is perfect for them. Recently though, we went at night. Nothing crazy late, but around 6pm on a Friday. When we got there, there were a bunch of teens cursing and just doing teen stuff.
If you're not familiar, I hate teens. About a year and a half ago I talked about a potential platform for myself to run for Mayor in a idillic metropolis and my platform would be a town free of teens. We'd bus them out and they'd all go to boarding school. And everyone would be better for it.
Anyway, these gangly teens were not just on the benches, but actually just walking on this little playground that's meant for toddlers. They had their bags and sweatshirts just laying around it! We were trying to use it. My youngest is rather bold and eventually just went up to the playground and walked around them and started playing, going down the slide etc.
The teens got the hint and started to scatter, but what should a young parent do if their child wasn't so bold? In the 6pm window, we don't have a lot of time to lose. There were about 9 or 10 teens, so am I telling them to stop cursing? I can't exactly kick them out. And definitely not trying to start anything physical being alone with my two kids. So what would you do?
Option #1: Tell the teens to politely stop cursing. This makes you look wildly uncool and could start an argument in front of your kids
Option #2: Ignore them and hope for the best. This could work or they could stay and ruin your whole night. Plus your kids may learn some swear words.
Option #3: Try and go alpha and just yell at them to scram and that this is a safe area for kids. This has highest potential of something physical or an argument happening and you looking like a total loon in front of your kids
If you have another idea, drop it in the comments and if there are some repeat answers I'll throw in the poll.
Here are the results of last week's poll on how early is too early to mow your lawn.
Thanks for reading and see you next Saturday!