Renee Oelrich

Communication with children can be this puzzling. I was sitting at the park on a super sunny day, chowing on my gluten free, non-dairy lunch. Kids were running everywhere and half of the parents that brought them, were running just as much after them. The other half of parents were conversating in groups, on their phones or just zoned out in the sun. One kid in particular was running up a storm, going back and forth to her parent, grabbing a handful of goodies from junk food bags and slamming a large Powerade. Her parent of course tried diligently to get this girl to sit and eat, but the girl didn’t hear a word, didn’t acknowledge any strictness from her parent. So, the tension was starting to be noticeable with the constant looking around from the parent to see if anyone else noticed her anguish and parental defeat. Another little girl was trying to play on the ropes that were slanted going up to the higher platform. She was taking her time making her moves. The junk food girl kept running to the ropes, she’d jump and bounce halfway up, turn around and fall in the middle on the ropes in front of the slow girl. As I watch this bazar show with no popcorn, I could almost guess the ending. Yet still I watch with great humor. The junk food girl flew back to her parent. The parent grabbed her and made her half sit on the bench to finish what looked like chicken nuggets. The junk food girl swallowed fast and guzzled up the Powerade. When her parent once more took her hands away to grab food and garbage, the junk food girl took off, sprinting for the ropes. The slow girl was now towards the top and not sure how to get her feet off the ropes onto the platform at that angle and was just hanging there in her decision-making conflict. The junk food girl literally decides to go for the gold and leaps onto the ropes as high up as she can, grabs the ropes and twists around to just lay there as the ropes swing down, then up and down again. The slow girl loses her grip and falls back with one foot now caught in the ropes and she totally body slams the junk food girl. The slow girls’ head lands in the middle of the junk food girls’ stomach. For the first time since I sat down, did that junk food girl move slower than a baby crawling for the first time. She slowly crawled off the ropes a looked at the slow girl with pure hatred. She shuffled toward her parent. Her parent had finally excepted her defeat and was scrolling on her phone. Junk food girl made it back to the parent and was holding her hand on her stomach and poking her parents’ arm. Her parent ignored her and continued with her phone. The junk food girl started leaning on her parent and pushing her, but then she started to walk around her parent sitting on the bench, stopped at the other side, turned and yelled, “I have a headache in my tummy!” Then puked.