Today (like many weekends) I am spending it alone with my daughter as my wife needs space to study for exams. When the weather is 'Finnish normal' it is terrible as we are stuck inside most of the time or, dressed up to face the elements. However, when the sun is shining like it has been the last week or so, it is pretty great.
We have spent the day walking around the neighborhood, kicking a ball on the field and of course, swinging at every swing we pass. We live in an area with apartment building and each set has their own little playground consisting of some swings, a slide and a sandpit. Our daughter loves going to each and playing with the slight variants in equipment.
Most of all though, our daughter likes the swings which is great until she wants me to swing next to her. Even a t slow speeds, it makes me feel sick. My wife gets motion sickness too so it is a bit of a surprise she enjoys it so much. I am hoping that all of the motion now will help her get used to it so she doesn't have issues in the future.
Some of the older residents at each building don't like it when 'non-resident' families use the private playgrounds but I think as long as the children and parents take care of it and treat it well, there is no harm done. People like their rules here though and some tend to stick to them regardless.
I think this is part of the problem with the isolation of cities where people crate imaginary borders around themselves because of the various risks they see. I find it interesting that they also extend this to a person with a child under two as if there is a high possibility of crime or something. People have become very wary of strangers and as a result, more strangers are created.
Rather than building a community where neighbors can talk with each other about the weather or the sports, there is a great deal of distance. This is also part of Finland as in general, people are overly socially adept here and keep as wide of berth from each other as possible.
I am hoping that in the future, people will again find the importance of having close communities that are willing to look out for each other and lend a hand if needed. I think it would go a long way to reducing the very things that people fear will happen. The isolation of individuals has lots of negative effects on the individual and this has consequences for communities too.
It is interesting that we spend so much time trying to build systems to connect us when we could mostly just go outside and have a chat to a neighbor about the sun, rain or what tomorrow may bring.
I will get to comments later as for now, it is back to playing with dinosaurs...
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]