Photo by: Tom Check

Open Letter of Apology: To New Parents at the Playground

by Lynley Baker Phillips of "Save the Phillips Family"
Photo by: Tom Check

Dear New Parents visiting our Neighborhood Park Yesterday,

First, let me congratulate you on your beautiful three month old daughter. I am sure she is quite lovely, but the 3.5 second glimpse I was able to catch of her when not chasing my own children only told me she was wearing pink socks. They were nice.

Allow me to apologize for the fact that all the pictures of your baby’s first trip to the park will also include my son. Apparently he was quite excited to have someone else to share his new found discovery of a pine cone with other than his own Mommy. Years from now when you look back on little Susie’s first ride on the swing or trip down the slide and see a smiling, blue-eyed boy in the corner of all your pictures, please know that he was well-intended in his apparent endeavors to ruin every family photo taken yesterday. His name is “Isaac” if you care to simply write him into your daughter’s baby book.

Also know that if you are blessed with more children, you will likely allow number two (or three or four…) to sit in the wood chips and dig to her heart’s content. You will not panic when she decides to sample her surroundings, just calmly rake the wood chip from her mouth while continuing on with your conversation (I know witnessing this was a bit horrific to you at the time yesterday). If you are truly blessed to have children close together, you will simply look at the oldest with a confused expression when he too decides to eat a wood chip simply because his younger sister did (fortunately, he chewed his up).

Best of luck in parenting your new bundle of joy. The weather is predicted to be nice again today so perhaps you can re-do your park photo shoot minus my children.

Sincerely,

A Fellow Parent

Lynley Baker Phillips is a stay-at-home mommy to two, blogger, former special education teacher, and referee in all major toy disputes. Her writings have been featured in various publications and on her mother’s refrigerator door. Contact her at [email protected]

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29 Comments

I love this. You are hilarious. I feel I should have written this to many a new parent at the park we frequent. Happy New Year!

I have a 16month old little girl who this summer discovered the park and is very outgoing and friendly. I think it is wonderful for little children to interact with each other with no judgments and no preconcieved ideas of how the interaction will turn out, just complete joy in another human being. This is how we all should be. Little Susie's parents should feel honored to have your little guy one of their daughters first friends. Best wishes to you and you blue eyed little man.

Love this! Have a three year old and live it everyday. Incredibly outgoing and not always appreciated by others. Thanks for helping me remember that we aren't the only ones.

I have to say thank you for pointing out the difference between first and second or later kids. I know my kids will survive whatever happens, but new parents don't.

Maybe this should just be posted at all playgrounds so newbies can read it as their 3 month olds sit in strollers.

Absolutely loved the letter!
My youngest child was H-E-double hockey sticks on wheels. She has always had more personality then we could handle. My husband and I let her speak her mind as long as she did so with dignity and respect to herself and most of all others. Many looked at us in 2 ways- 1) that we let her do and say whatever is on her mind, or 2) she is intelligent beyond her years, which she now gets all the time. She asked all type of questions and held little back...

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Thank you, fellow moms, for the kind words and support. If we all stick together, perhaps we will survive this trial by fire (that is so terribly fun and extremely maddening) called "Mommyhood".

My daughter is now 5. When she was younger she explored every thing by first putting it in her mouth. I have pictures of her at the beach where she had first tried to eat the sand. When I bought her a new book she would first bite it to see if it was good enough for me to read it to her. After painfully trying to get her to stop putting things in her mouth I had to finally just go with it. Thankfully she stopped that by the time she was 3.

I did love this letter...

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Funny! Your letter is so true. I admit with our first one I was a teeny bit protective (not that bad though, she def. played in dirt and still does). By the time the 3rd one comes, their dinners, lots of times, consists of what they can scavenge from underneath the table! I one time made a comment to a new mother that got a look of utter horror. She was going on and on about her son having a really wet diaper and "oh poor little guy" and it was getting rather ridiculous...

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Gotta quite a kick out of that letter, I often wonder what people think about my two rambunctious boys who get into everything and are quite curious about everything as well. Parenting and all around joy those are the memories you can live with forever and truly laugh about when the kids are grown later in life.

Hilarious letter! As a mom to 3 1/2 yr old and 21 mo old girls, I too, am reminded every day what a blessing they are - how very precious this time is and what a joy it is to see the world once again through a child's eyes! I too, have had to "explain" the curious scowls from strangers who obviously have "missed it," but by and large have found that most adults, parents or not, do enjoy our little bundles :) Happy New Year to all of you fellow mommies and your families!

Ha ha ha! I have a 28-month-old and an 8-month-old (the only reason I know how old the first one is is because they are 20 months apart), and I totally know where you're coming from!

Loved your article. My son was the same way and still is very personable. The world is a lot colder and sometimes it would be nice if people were a little more warmer.

I loved your letter. I have 6 children ranging from almost 16 (oh no!) to 2. Yes, your reality changes as you have more children and you learn to take it easy. I have learned that nature is rarely harmful and eating grass and chewing sticks actually provides valuable tactile and immune experience. I hope that this family learns to go with the flow so that their daughter will not be stressed out like so many of our youngsters are today...

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This is a cute letter and we have all been in the same boat at one time or another. I think we all need to remember too what it was like being a first time mom, I sometimes think we forget. My little girl has seen cameras many times with other kids around & I never hesitate to pull her aside if someone is trying to snap a photo of their child. It's just common politeness & kids need to learn those lessons at a young age -- even at the playground.

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