The Simple Joys of Childhood

When we moved into our current house in 2010, Our Boys were two and four. We brought with us the swing set that we had at the first house we shared as a family. The swing set was a house warming gift from my nana when we first moved. A friend generously helped us take it down and put it back together once we moved. It still stands in our backyard today.

When Our Boys were younger, it was a regular source of play. Regardless of the weather, the two of them, or their friends, were out there for hours. There was scrambling up the ladders or climbing walls. There was sliding down the slides. There was swinging on the swings. There were imaginary battles on the top decks. There were yells, screams, and laughter.

More often than not, these days, the swing set sits empty in our backyard, waiting for a child, regardless of the age, to find some measure of play on it. Occasionally, we've mused aloud about taking it down to create more space for the type of play Our Boys are choosing more and more of these days: athletics. If we took down that swing set, there would be more room to hit, swing, throw, and run in our yard.

And yet the two loudest voices holding on to this childhood play space might surprise you: Our Boys. You see, while they recognize they've almost wholly outgrown it physically, they still use it. Despite the lure of technology, when they have friends over and are playing outside, inevitably, they end up on that swing set. Yes, it may be harder to navigate, given their growing bodies, but they make it work.

One of the wonderful things about this house is that we are situated in a neighborhood in which friends for Our Boys are within walking distance. I love that on snow days or summer days, or really any day, there are three or four houses which may, on the one hand, have five or six children in them, while simultaneously at another home, there are no children at all.

I fondly remember seeing Our Boys and their friends during a snow day last year, using the swing set as a fort. There they were running around, pointing and laughing, climbing and falling, pushing and tackling, in an imaginary world they had constructed. The snow falling made it a picturesque moment that I won't soon forget.

I had a swing set in my backyard growing up, a gift from my grandparents. The same nana that bought the swing set for my own children, helped to buy the one I used when I was a child. I can still see us swinging together on that swing set in the house I grew up in. To this day, when I go to a park, I love to swing. It brings back such wonderful memories.

This past week would have been my nana's 104th birthday. She passed away four years ago this coming summer, having lived a full life. With her generosity, she gave two generations of Ricca children and their friends one of the greatest gifts parents could hope for: the gift of play.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Photo Courtesy of www.craftandplay.com