Swing low

How time flies. It was way back in September of 2008 that Jacquie wrote her teetering post, you know, the post where Jacquie so eloquently talked about how her girl, then seven, was, “teetering on the ledge between childhood innocence and a worldliness that I did not realize I should expect from age seven.”

I’ve thought about that post a lot since I read it, as our girls are only 10 weeks apart in age, and like Jacquie I see my girl teetering. Still. Thankfully, still. And again, like Jacquie, “I want to drag her back down to the safe side, where boys will always be gross and moms are cool and smart and worthy of giant mooshy love notes of apology taped to their bedroom doors after a particularly rough day.”

Yesterday we had the distinct pleasure of having Jacquie’s girl come over to play, and I’m so very pleased to report that the seesaw was resting solidly on the ground. Their teeter was tottering completely on the little girl side. The play that I witnessed involved pretending they were sisters, and babies, and mamas, and dolphins, and all manner of other make believe scenarios, none of which had to do with being a teen pop star or Hollywood diva.

The older two girls included Merrell, a whole 3 years younger, in all their play, and like all kids do, the three of them made magic out of the mundane.

We spent hours at the pool, where a simple towel, once wet, became endlessly amusing. It was a magic carpet


and a shawl, and even a superhero-type cape, which was best put on by swimming under it, of course.

Not all of my oldest daughter’s friends play this way, and I have to admit that I’m hesitant to agree to playdates with the girls who I know would rather try on makeup or talk smack about their classmates. I know I can’t pick my child’s friends (at least not for long), but is it so bad to want their seesaws to swing low for a while longer?