Rosebery Gangs

The 3-9 year olds in the neighbourhood are looking for new recruits.  The warmer weather has brought all the boys out to the street to ride their bikes and have water fights.  The Sprout looks longingly at them all.  You can tell he wants to play, and they can tell he is watching them.

We keep getting little ones coming into the garden (without asking may I add) to show the Sprout things and asking if the Sprout can play.  I am very uncomfortable with the situation because I do not come from a neighbourhood background.  I don't know how to interact with other people's unsupervised children and I am shocked by the shear number of little boys who want to play with the Sprout.

The Sprout still doesn't communicate through speech very well, and though the majority of the children are from households of 3-4 children (so they know what it's like to have little siblings), I don't like that he can't fully say what he means. I also don't know these children, but I know the kind of parents who are raising them, and though the wars between the parents of the children don't keep the boys from playing together, I am still wary of the kind of people the Sprout may be interacting with.

This is all the next stage of single child mom jitters.  It doesn't help that this is not the way that I made friends when I was little.  It also doesn't help that the children play on a road that taxis use as a shortcut.  More than that, the age range really freaks me out.  The Sprout is 2 1/2 and I just don't think he is ready for playing around in a group of boys ranging from the ages of 3-9.

Recently there has been an increase of birthday parties.  We went to one last week and we are attending one this Sunday.  This is more like it.  Children the Sprout's age, from his nursery class in fact, running around together for a set amount of time surrounded by their parents.  The only thing that would make this perfect would be if it was outside my house.  I am not a fan of the "playdate," but it would be nice for the Sprout to be able to play with other kids.