T woke up crying one night. When asked why, she said …
“I don’t want to grow up. If I grow up I’ll forget all about the fun things I did, like Playing in my swing”.
She only went back to sleep when her dad told her about all the things he remembered as a child. Like the time his own dad put up a swing for him. He thinks he was barely five, even younger than T. She laughed when he told her that he saw Father Christmas coming out of the attic once. How he was so scared that he saw him and wouldn’t give him his present. Of course what my husband saw as a child was the shadow of his dad coming down from the attic with his presents. I couldn’t contribute much, because of my really bad memory. But we assured her that no one will take away her good memories from her and that all she needed to do was conjure them up when she wants them back. I encouraged her to write more in her journal. At the moment, she uses it as her doodle book complete with made-up stories of her and her friends.
That swing in the photo is the best £10 purchase I’ve ever made in my life. I bought that swing for T a few months ago and it’s currently her most favourite thing in the world.
When the weather is good, she heads straight down in the Garden for a little swing before coming inside the house.
She can spend hours down there just playing on it. Swinging on it and sometimes I’ve seen her just sitting there peacefully with her own little thoughts. It is a lovely sight.
And then there are times when she’d ask us to push her up higher and higher. The air will be filled with her laughter and giggles and me telling her to hold on tight as she’d go up, up and away.
For me, playing on a swing should be part of every childhood memory. I have my own. We lived in the city and didn’t have a swing in the garden. But I remember swinging in my maternal grandmother’s garden in the country, up, up and higher. It’s a lovely memory. And I’m really pleased too that T is making her own memories of playing in a swing down in the garden.
Do you remember your childhood?
