Playing Marbles

... the shadow of the porch begins to fall on the children ...

I want to do everything in the world.

I want to do everything and at the same time.

I want to be at the homes of each of my children, many of whom are foolish enough to invite me there. I love the teen-agers. Bonnie told me that I have always said that, but she thought I was just trying to bolster people up for what would be a terrible time: raising teens. A few days ago she told me that now she believes me. Having a teen-ager is such a parenting thrill, but that was hard to believe before she had one.

I like those little children as well – the age that Richard has: a 4 year old, a 6 year old, and 8 year old. To go on with that idea, Bonnie is doing an online course that she let me listen to with her. There are videos. First a neurotypical child doing a task (the task was watching a new wind up toy on the table which was giving them a little bit of the fear of the unknown). Then there was a child with a possible autism label doing the same task. Then the commentator spoke about how each child was reacting to the toy. I am going to call the therapist in the video a scientist for they are taking data and measuring behaviour and collecting information. At any rate, I was so taken with the methodology, I was wanting to be young again and have a job where I could do that. More than that, I was longing for a little one to play with just that age – maybe not quite two or a little older. So much fun to play with babies. What they are doing is not really play, even if it is to me.

... the string around the marble game is hard to find ...

But back to my little 4, 6 and 8 year old in whose backyard I live?

It is very hard to leave them and go somewhere else. It is also very hard to be around them and get anything done.

One late afternoon, Michael was wanting to play marbles.

I just didn’t have time.

I had told him no so many times and he had kept asking. Finally, I said, “You can play marbles outside. I can let you have mine, but I can’t come and play with you.” He was asking me if the string was with the marbles which surprised me. Apparently he could remember that we needed string to make the circle in which marble play begins. He is always surprising me.

Michael didn’t want to play in the spot I designated – too shady he said and he was right. It was late afternoon and the only sunny place left in our collective backyard was his porch.

When the marble games were over he brought back the bottles of marbles and told me that Alice and Betty had not helped with the clean-up. I told him that this is often true with play – little ones do not do a good job of cleaning up. I thanked him for bringing the marbles back and told him, “Welcome to 8 year old adulthood. That is what adults do – clean up after children and you did a good job.”