What is it with kids and water? Friday night for our family night the kids wanted to go outside and play in the sprinklers. We compromised. I held the hose and sprayed so that I could make sure the water went somewhere it was needed (our lawn has developed some dry spots). I hoped that would satisfy them for awhile.
Ha! Saturday morning they were right back outside again, using spray bottles, since we’d told them we’re living in an area where we have to conserve water. They played with the spray bottles for close to eight hours straight, though after awhile the sprayer parts went away and they mostly used the bottles to transport water to the slide and the trampoline.
Occasionally they would get tired/cold/wet enough to want to lay out on their towels in the sun, but that would seldom last for long–especially after Emma’s encounter with a bee that thought her towel was a flower bed or something, and she ended up stung. They’ve all got sunburns today, but I doubt that will slow them down any next time there’s water fun to be had. At least two of our three kids will be having a Water Day at school this week.
And it’s not just at home. Whenever we go hiking they are drawn to the closest stream or river. We can’t not try and cross the stream, which of course means at least one kid will fall in. Walking home from church today they went out of their way to walk past someone’s sprinklers that were spraying onto the sidewalk.
If there’s water, they’ll want to be in it. Period.
I don’t remember being quite so bad when I was their age. Yes, we did have a wading pool (okay, a cattle watering tub) that we often wanted to fill, but that was, more often than not, just so we could float boats in it, not get it all over us. Okay, sometimes that happened, too, but it wasn’t the main point. Or maybe I’m just not remembering things correctly. Refresh my memory, oh siblings! Were we that crazy about water?
Uh, yes. Your memory just isn’t working very well. We watched the thermometer carefully, as we weren’t allowed to run through the sprinklers until it reached 100. I remember playing into the garden making sure the water reached the end of the rows, my own 6 year old version of “Watergate” (never did figure out why everyone was so upset about Nixon watering the garden…). I played for hours in the gutter with the water there. And you occompanied me to the park, back when they flood irrigated it to wade in the water. Yes, we were water crazy then, too.
As the older sibling, let me correct what Dan said. The rule was that it had to be 90 degrees before we could run through the sprinkler/play in the wading pool.
Thom, bring your kids up to visit us. We have ditches with running water at least two days of the week (usually more) plus a pool almost deep enough for a kid to actually swim in. Gabe is always up for a water fest, regardless of the outside temperature. I have not passed down the 90 degree rule Mom had for us.