Playground drama
The scene: The school playground at recess
The temperature: Freezing
My role: Prevent chaos and injury
We're almost through the 30-minute recess and so far, so good. No skinned knees, no broken bones, no whiners who can't take the cold. Then, the dreaded thing happens -- a little girl runs toward me, breathlessly reporting that her friend is crying. I get pulled to the other side of the playground where the girl is hunched up in a ball, sobbing, surrounded by three classmates.
"Are you hurt?" I ask worriedly. She's not talking, but her friends assure me the answer is no. It's her feelings that are hurt, they explain.
Uh oh. One of those.
It's tough to figure out what happened because the little girl is still balled up, not talking. The friends take over.
Friend #1, to me: "She thinks I said something mean but I didn't know what I was saying."
Friend #2, to her: "She didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
Friend #3: "I know, we can be your waiters! What would make you feel better?"
Friend #1: "I can scratch your back."
Friend #2: "Would you like some ice cream?"
At that, the girl with the hurt feelings rallies, stands up and wipes her eyes. They run off to find some pretend ice cream on the other side of the playground. The wind chill hovers at 32.