Playground Etiquette for Americans in Spain

One thing you will notice if you go to playgrounds in Spain (versus the US) is that playground etiquette is quite different.

¿Is this the best playground in Sevilla?

 In the US, parents tend to hover a lot around their children on playgrounds. As soon as they walk onto the playground, they station themselves next to the children and intercede as soon as any conflict presents itself. Being a helicopter parent is considered "good parenting." Making matters more complicated, I live in a region of the US in which the residents pride themselves on "keeping it real" and "telling it like it is [to your face!] so you never know when a conflict between children will become a fight between adults. I've seen adults wrest toys out of children's hands, yell at other people's kids, station themselves by playground equipment to enforce their vision of playground fairness--things can get very tense on American playgrounds. Often American parents will not let kids work things out amongst themselves which is weird and kind of the opposite of the purpose of playgrounds. Very stressful.

In Spain, parents are a lot more chill. Of course there are Spanish parents who supervise their children closely on the playground, especially parents of very young kids (under two). But the majority of parents drop their kids off at the playground and then relax at a distance, either on a bench outside the perimeter of the playground (most are fenced which is great) or at a terrace cafe with a view of the playground while drinking a coffee, soft drink, or alcoholic beverage. The parents allow the kids to work out their conflicts and never intercede unless there is some true physical danger.

The American parents who observe this Spanish playground parenting culture feel a great sense of internal conflict. You can almost hear the helicopter blades whirring in their heads  while they fight between the desire to be "a good parent who supervises their kids closely" and "have fun and do as the Spaniards do!"

So, one thing the American parents do (and it's always American tourist parents, I have never, not once, seen Spanish parents doing this) is they order a drink and then carry it with them onto the playground to continue parenting. With a glass of wine in their hand, they follow their youngins all over the playground, giving them instructions on how to go down the slide between sips of Faustino I. 

I am sure that when they return their home in the US, they will tell their friends, "Man, they really know how to live in Spain. You can drink a beer on the playground!" (Please don't. It's super gauche.) But hopefully they take with them the more relaxed attitude towards dealing with playground conflicts.

Does your child need to speak Spanish to make friends on the playground?

LOL, not really. On our last trip, Don Loco insisted on speaking in "English only" the playground because he was tired of speaking Spanish "all of the time." We told him that this would not work, he needed to speak Spanish to the kids, too, not just to the abuelos...

But you know what? It actually worked, he managed to speak only in English on the playgrounds and gosh darn it, all the kids spoke to him in English.  English enrichment classes are to Spanish children what Spanish enrichment classes are to American children. So the Spanish kids know enough English to speak English back to Don Loco and he got a break from speaking Spanish. Le sigh.