Vondelpark

The last full day in Amsterdam is a light one and Oscar and I have

breakfast with the group and play on the small playground near the hotel while the group goes to the modern art museum here that I like to try to pronounce, but probably mangle, the Stedelijk.  Fun

word.  Apparently, it’s a fun museum too, because all of them loved it, but they have the afternoon off and Oscar and I meet up with daddy to have some lunch at a nice café across from the museum where Oscar can watch traffic and let us eat quietly.  We head to the Vondelpark after that, which is a park that is so big, you need to “buy” a map at the beginning.  They will point out anything for you and you can find it on your own eventually, but the money goes toward upkeep for the park.  We head to the playground area and what is not readily apparent from the map is that this one has a wading pool.  And I haven’t been mentioning this, but Amsterdam is having a heat wave for this city.  It’s been in the 80’s and the natives here just have clothes that get

more diaphanous, but we're locked into what we brought.  The wading pool is packed though because of this and Oscar plays at the swings and the slides in a desultory way until I ask him if he wants to go in the pool.  Suddenly, he is pulling off his shoes so fast and down to this underwear in a second flat.  There are kids in this pool ranging from infants to 12 years old in various stages of undress.  Some in underwear, some in bathing suits, some in swim diapers, real diapers, some wearing nothing and the one mother who is down to her short shorts and her bra.  Oscar is in

heaven playing with the water on such a hot day, I’m liking it too and I notice that none of these kids (including my own) is stopping to look at the other kids, or paying attention to if someone is dressed or not.  I’m wondering how many CPS cases can be avoided if kids didn’t have to play “doctor” at home because of this more open view of the human body….Again, I’m going to have to do some research when I get home, because I feel like this is significant.  No one cares here.  And the parents didn’t care about the activities in the pool.  There was no helicopter parenting,

there was no one saying, your child took my child’s toy, or your bigger boy just splashed my younger child, which is what I have witnessed back home.  I’m not saying one is better than the other, but it’s different.  John got a little nap, we got to walk through a tony part of town where all the high end doctor’s had their practices and back to the hotel to start packing a little to see where we stand.  We brought an extra fold up bag in one of the bags in case we bought a lot, but I don’t think we have that much.