Confessions From a Campsite Playground


“This is my rubber horsey not my plastic one. It’s just soft rubber. I don’t mind if I share my horse with you. It’s actually not even a horse; it’s a pony. My Mommy only buys me the plastic ones because they're cheap.” said four year old Mia. 
With a few bangs inches longer than the rest, she continued to sputter her words at me with a slight lisp as neither seemed to bother her conversation or the fact that I was a complete stranger. 
“My Daddy didn’t come camping with us because he doesn't like to camp so he stayed home and worked on our house in said city because he does good work on a big tractor and my Mommy does good with a tent. That’s my friend, but I sometimes don’t like to share with her and these are her horses that she brought here.”
The girl with chocolate brown colored hair continued for another ten minutes telling me all about what seemed like twenty cats and dogs living under the same roof at one time, but then the story shifted as she went on, “Joey the cat got too close to a car on the road so the tire got him and then our other dog didn’t get along with Sophie the other cat and the cat didn’t make it because they couldn’t be friends. So then my Mommy got us this other cat…” For only being four years old this darling child had a zoo of pets at home whether alive or dead. 
I tried to get Mia to engage with the other kids, but she much rather would have sat there all day with me telling secrets of her home.
Cute thing went to grab some more toys from her campsite and instead got lost so she found me and took me on a walk looking for her Mommy. Well, it turns out I think the reason why her Daddy stayed home was because Mommy was on a camping date with her lady friend which clearly this four year old struggled to understand. 

Now enter truth teller number two who is entering sixth grade and was there with her sister and Mom. You may be asking where this jewels Dad was…well, let me tell you. They used to live in Georgia when her parents were married but then moved back here after her parents divorced. Her Dad wanted to live closer to his girls so they drove for a week in a car to get here to which the Irish youngster told me all about. I learned about the parking lots they slept in, food they ate, why the divorced happened in the first place and what school she'll be attending this fall. 
Her Mom and Dad get along really well now. Her mom works as a nurse and her Dad climbs trees. When her Dad went to Australia for three months she didn’t cry once, but then when he was gone for a day she cried all day long. Her older sister reads a lot which is why she has a huge imagination to entertain her as no one else wants to play. Her Dad gets mad at her step sister because she’s lazy, is only twenty-two and has two young babies. She loves babies but her Dad has to always give them money as the step sister can’t hold a job or make good choices. 
Irish also taught me about train safety. When trying to jump a train one must pull their legs up fast enough or they'll get stuck underneath and you'll get hurt like her Dad's friends did one time. Her Dad jumped lots of trains in his life. 
If Little Girl Irish wasn’t talking to me, she was busy playing with Baylee watching out for her on the tower play set. With her transitional glasses darkened and long hair tied in a pony-tail, Irish continued to tell me more about the details of her campsite, sleeping set-up and what she was planning on doing later on which included a bike ride and shower. 

I felt a little bit like Steve Harvey with these kids telling me all sorts of things I probably shouldn't have known. I didn't have a comfy couch to expose the family secrets; just a cement picnic table and some toys of our own. What makes me more nervous is wondering how often it's my own children revealing the secrets of our family and others choosing to blog about them!

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