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Playdates

It has been raining and raining and raining, so this afternoon, my friend Lee-Anne and I braved the weather, which fortunately had cleared a bit, and took our 3 girls to our favourite playdate meeting place. It has every conceivable jungle gym you can think of, geese, goats, chickens and even a pony to be ridden. Absolute heaven for a child! So for 2 hours they played, we had a quick cup of coffee and then we took them for the much anticipated pony ride! While driving home with my two girls happily singing away to their favourite songs, I realised once again just how important it is for a child to be able to play. When I go shopping for my 4 year old, I am always amazed at the clothes that are available - dresses so full of bling even I wouldn't wear it, bras for toddlers and shoes with heels! I mean come on, why are we not allowing our kids to play with dollies and dinky toys until they reach high school instead of dressing them up as though they are adults. These days its the in thing to reason with a toddler - I am still trying to figure out how you do that - because if we punish them any other way, we are breaking them down or causing them to become violent if they get smacked! Really people, surely we are not so blind that we haven't noticed that violence has increased and not decreased? I say children should be nurtured, disciplined and allowed to play and grow up at their own pace and it worries me that if we don't remedy this situation its going to get so bad that we will reach a point of no return...

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