Playgrounds make me emotional

There I said it.  Playgrounds make me emotional.  And you know what?  They are everywhere.  Taking your kid to the playground is pretty much at the top of the "this is what normal parents do" list.  There is a playground just down the street from our house.  We drive by it almost every single day.  But we never take our kids there.  Never.  And every time we drive by it with the kids in tow, one of them will almost always say "I want to go to THAT playground Mommy".  And I just say "someday sweetie".

You see...when you have a physically-challenged child, playgrounds are a completely different experience.  No "sitting on the bench and chatting with the other moms" for me.  Nope.  I'm either helping Ben "climb" or catching Ben at the bottom or I'm on the friggin' thing with him.  And if there are a lot of other kids there, well, we usually hang back and watch or just decide to go home and try another time.

So we drive around neighbourhoods and find playgrounds that work for Ben.  And we've found a few.  Playgrounds with lots of steps and not so many ladders...because Ben can climb steps.  Playgrounds with just one big play structure instead of many small ones so I can keep an eye on both Ben and Daniel.  And most importantly, playgrounds that aren't very busy.  Because bigger kids seem even bigger when your main method of transportation is crawling.  And Ben gets easily intimidated by bigger kids.

So yeah.  Playgrounds make me emotional.  They make me sad, angry, and frustrated on occasion.  But sometimes, they make me happy...like when we went to the playground with "Sarah", Ben's CE friend.  And it totally worked for THEM.