I found this McSweeney article by Eric Hague, ‘Our Daughter Isn’t a Selfish Brat; Your Son Just Hasn’t Read Atlas Shrugged’ via Jill Filipovic and it made me laugh so.
As someone who is now raising their second human toddler let me put it right out there that ‘sharing’ does not come naturally to human beings.
I’d like to start by saying that I don’t get into belligerent shouting matches at the playground very often. The Tot Lot, by its very nature, can be an extremely volatile place—a veritable powder keg of different and sometimes contradictory parenting styles—and this fact alone is usually enough to keep everyone, parents and tots alike, acting as courteous and deferential as possible. The argument we had earlier today didn’t need to happen, and I want you to know, above all else, that I’m deeply sorry that things got so wildly, publicly out of hand.
Now let me explain why your son was wrong.
It’s not just the lack of sharing, it’s that every little upset is the end of the world. It happens so fast; one moment it’s row row row your boat and the next it’s the silent scream which leads to a a blood curdling scream. There is nothing more terrible than the silent scream.
So true…it is scary to visit play areas with other parents and their toddlers…some parents have NO idea what an age appropriate expectation is of their toddler! It can be very SCARY!!