the G sides

Colorado Springs schools bans the playing of tag on the playground saying children who don’t want to play are being chased and harassed against their will.

Boo-freakity-hoo. You don’t want to play tag? Don’t play. It works like this - they touch you and say - “You’re it!” You stand there and continue on your conversation or whatever else you were doing…the tag game completely grinds to a halt and they have to find someone who WANTS to play.

I do understand banning certain kids from playing tag. The ones that trip over air and could hurt themselves - I get that. I understand not letting kids play tag on concrete or on rocks…because it hurts when you land on those surfaces.

But as a parent, I need my child to run around like an idiot during the day so they will be tired when they get home.

On a larger level, I need the school to quit writing rules that try to solve every little problem that every little kid could possibly have. I need my kids to learn that not everybody plays fair and sometimes people get away with cheating. I need them to experience that now so they can learn how to deal with it better later. I need them to learn that it’s okay to not play or like something that “everybody else” does. I need them to learn how to say “no” out of principle, not have a rule or “law” that gets them out of making a hard decisions. I need them to fall down, scrape a knee and get up again.

I need my kids to face these minor “traumas” now so that they will be better equipped for real life with real hurts.

Now if only my school had banned Geometry for those of us who felt harassed by math teachers.