TamraIt's My Park and I'll Party if I Want To!
April 21st 2008 11:49
“Okay, bring those Range Rovers over here – let’s park them sort of corral-style around the tables and chairs and grab that bloody barbecue, no make it two, before someone else takes them! Can you string those balloons a little higher so people know it’s our party and they can’t intrude? Great. Now we’ve just got to put out the treasure hunt treats…maybe we’ll need to police those so no little outsiders steal any. Constable, I mean, cousin Hamish can do that.”
Yes, the all too familiar refrain from a birthday parent setting up camp at a local ‘public’ park. Have you seen them? They drive onto the turf, put up posters, balloons, electric fencing, all for little Jamiiie-Lee or Jonny’s birthday and bugger the rest of us. We can use the swing and the slippery dip, if we’re lucky but just get too near the birthday bash, and watch out. There'll be threatening looks, shooing away by aged, cranky aunties and downright threats from slightly inebriated fathers at the bbq.
What’s going on? Well statistics (created by me and anyone I overhear) tell us that “Park Take-Overs” are on the rise. If it’s not a birthday party, it’s a gaggle of personal trainers with their rich slaves, or a sporting event that pretty much wipes out any family fun you could be having at your local. Sadly this seems to be yet another example of how people's focus is pretty much entirely themselves and their own, rather than the collective 'us' and what's good for all. The modern rallying cry is "all for one, and...all for one!" Not a true musketeer in sight.
The other day we wandered over to an inner west park, set up the blanket, put out some food and were pretty much happily goofing around for half an hour. Suddenly there was a thronging of mostly men (fathers) with young offspring and for some bizarre reason they chose exactly where we were to set up their soccer training. I mean, they were literally standing on the edges of the rug!
Now, if this had been a park of say three metres by three metres, we’d be completely understanding. But this was a big park. We kept looking at them helplessly to try to get eye contact, work out what social phenomena was at play, but they refused to engage in any way, except to step on my babaganoush.
This was clearly “their place” at the park, at “their time” and we had foolishly crossed over into the 35th parallel or whatever it was and were being silently punished. We eventually moved, them having proved their point and us not wanting to get out our black belts and kill them in front of the kids. But it was really annoying.
So just remember, if you want a park party, or wish to train or sweat with friends, or play your chosen sport outside legitimate sporting hours – others pay their council rates and taxes too. They’re public not private parks and if you want exclusivity, stay home. Tamra x
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