Of dogs babies, their owners parents, and the parks they play in

It seems to me that recently the in vogue thing to do is to take your progeny to a little green-space; and, let him or her run wild and free amongst animals of similar species and age.

You know, like in a dog park.

You, as a parent, don’t seem to actually have to know any of the other kids there, or even interact with them necessarily; you just unleash your kid and let It run around until It seems ripe for napping, and/or non-crying indoors. I know, at least in my own experience, that these sorts of things weren’t around when I was much much shorter, and that my parents never just set me loose in some loosely designated area to run around in circles, or play on a Jun-Gull-Jim™. And I’m happy about that. My interactions were with kids I would actually see again, and were not (I think) quite so contrived. I made friends. I played organized games, mostly consisting of turning that mound of dirt into a car and that stick into He-Man’s sword. I never had a leash and I never felt limited in my fun choices (as you would if, say, you were in a park specified for certain activities like this slide, this swing, this rock to stand jauntily on)

I don’t know, it just makes me uncomfortable to look out and see a scene like the above, and to have been compelled to literally yell out, “Where’s your plastic baggy?! You better pick up after your dog-kid!”… which I did, to really only my own great great amusement.