Ending playtime

Negotiating with a two year old can sometimes be a pain in the ass; especially when we try to peel Spud away from a playground. There have been days when, despite having given Spud ample lead time of telling her that we have to go, we still have had to haul her ass back to reality with her kicking and screaming as we make our grand exit out of the play area. 

It is not always often that happens, but when it does, we have, by now, gotten quite unfazed by it. We do what we have to do - we just pick her up with her screaming in our ears, knowing that she’ll calm herself down in a matter of minutes.

She surprised us recently, though. When we told her that her time was almost up, and that she had 5 minutes more to play (not that she has the sense of time just yet!), thus allowing her 2 to 3 slide- time before we had to go, she looked at us with utmost motivation to play as hard as she can and quickly bolted back into the play area as fast as she can.

And suddenly out of nowhere and even before the actual 5 minutes was up, there was Spud…darting towards us, stopped herself right in front of us, looked at us in earnest, and said, “OK. We go home.”

THAT was music to my ears. 

As soon as she said that, she proceeded to the exit area to look for her shoes, leaving both me and silver Bullet in stunned silence as we both looked at each other with a big grin.

That was possibly the sweetest thing I could ever heard from my 2 year old after ending a playground session.  

No kicking. No screaming. No need for negotiation. No delays.

Could it be that all the conditioning of ending playtime we have done in the last few months is starting to bear the fruits of our labour? Or is this is just one of the signs that my little girl is indeed growing up?