When we got to the playground there were several other kids there: a little girl that looked like she'd just learned to walk, and two older boys. Will first offered his ball to the little girl. She threw it to him (well, sort of - she threw it while looking at him, but it didn't really go in his direction most of the time) and Will rolled it back. I didn't even have to remind him to be gentle when playing with someone younger than him. Will didn't even freak out when she lifted up his ball (his special Thomas ball) and toddled off to another area of the playground. Maybe he realized her parents, or his mom, wouldn't let her leave for good with it? Anyway, she wandered off, and Will set his sights on the two boys.
Lorne and I have a tendency to be fairly shy around people we don't know. (Hell, sometimes around people we do know.) Will has not inherited this aspect of our personalities. Will walked right up to the boys and said, "Oh, hi friends! Would you like to play with me?"
The first, the older boy, said, "I'm six. I'm too old to play with you and I'm not your friend."
Undaunted, Will turned to the smaller boy and said, "Would you like to play with me, friend?"
The second boy said, rather meanly, "I'm three. I'm too old to play with you too. I don't want to be your friend either."
And this is where I, and I'm 99% sure Lorne, would have said, "Oh, okay," wilted, and turned around and found something to do alone. (Though to be honest, without a couple beers in us first, Lorne and I probably wouldn't have been so forward in the first place.) But not Will. Will, refusing to be shut down so easily, responded, "Well I'm four." He didn't say it in a teasing way, or a sing-songy way, or in any way that might have indicated that he was lying. He was very matter-of-fact.
And then the older boy turned to his brother and said, "Well, he's older than you. He can tell you to play with him and be his friend if he wants."
Will grinned. "Okay friends! Let's go down the slide!" he exclaimed.
The older boy immediately complied. Apparently Will being "four" made him a little more desirable to play with. Will and the older boy went down the big slide together. The younger boy followed Will and the older boy around, saying over and over, "I'm not your friend. I don't want to play with you." But as he said it, he went down the slide and chased him. Then eventually, he stopped saying it. Soon the three boys were going down the wide slide all at the same time, having races, and laughing like old pals. When their mom said it was time to go home, they all hugged. They said they hoped they'd see him at the playground again soon. Will cried a little. He was having so much fun he didn't want to leave.
When the boys were initially being a little snotty to him, I wanted to say something. Not to force them to play with Will, just to be a little more polite about not wanting to. But I didn't. It's not like I've let my shyness keep me from telling off a kid (or his/her parent) who's acting like a jerk at the playground before. But they weren't being super mean. Just regular-kid mean. If Will had been upset by their words I may have. I thought, for a bit, that Will might not have realized they were being mean to him and that's why he persisted, why he didn't just walk away when they rejected his initial offer of friendship. But as we walked home he talked about his new friends and how they didn't want to play with him and were not being very nice*, but then they were nice and they went down the slide and climbed the ladder and had lots of fun. It seems he knew what was going on. He just didn't let the rejection faze him.
I could probably stand to learn a lesson or two from Will.
*When we're watching TV and there's any sort of yelling or physical fighting at all, Will will furrow his brow, turn to me or Lorne, and say, "They're not being very nice," repeatedly. Then he'll expound upon whatever not nice behavior he just saw. It seems to fascinate and annoy him all at once.
P.S. I know I'm ridiculously behind in posting pictures. Forgive me. We've been taking pictures, but things have just been so busy lately.
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