Don't Push!

Last week we finished assembling the kids’ new swing set. (If you prefer you may use the parlance of the day and call it a “play structure,” but who are we kidding - it's a swing set.) Saturday afternoon found me in the back yard with the kids as they played on/with it.

Claire has mastered the art of the swing and can keep herself going quite nicely. Cameron, on the other hand, has not shown much interest in self-powered swinging and generally wants to be pushed. This week he started to try to figure it out, however, which is a good thing.

And so I found myself alternating between pushing him and encouraging him to try to keep himself going. Katy shouted down from upstairs, “Don’t push him!”

Hmm. She sounded pretty serious about that.

And so I shifted gears, trying to convince Cam that he should pump his legs. Claire got into the act too, trying to pass on some tips about when to lean back and such. Cameron just kept getting upset that he was slowing down.

Normally I would have just pushed him for a while - good exercise, that - but Katy seemed quite firm that I not do that. And so I kept it to a minimum, getting him going and then letting him be. He was not pleased.

A few minutes later, Katy stuck her head out the back door. "Why aren't you pushing him? He's getting pretty upset about it."

My brain hiccuped. Didn't she just tell me not to push him? I mean, it didn't make much sense but I figured she had a good reason. I approached Katy for a consultation.

Turns out, what she meant when she said "don't push him" was not "don't push him" but "don't pressure him into trying to pump his legs - he's been really stubborn about it lately and I don't want him to dig in his heels and stop altogether."

Oh.

I returned to the swingset, where I pushed my son to his heart's content.