Not So Brave

While Shaun was an older infant and toddler I always encouraged him to try things - food, climbing, etc. - so it's not like I was one of those mothers who snuffs out all of her kid's creativity and sense of adventure. So explain to me why Shaun's such a chicken? We went to the park this afternoon. There's a great big free standing slide there that has an elaborate set of ladders to climb to the top. I have pictures of Shaun at the top from last spring and the spring before. This spring he's petrified of this stupid thing. He honestly doesn't believe us that he EVER went down that slide. He made it to the top this spring and had a complete meltdown and I ended up having to crawl up there and escort him down. He was carrying on and on that it was too scary and really creating quite the scene. This afternoon at the park he wouldn't go near the slide with a 10 foot pole. And the swings. Oh Lord, don't get me started on the swings. I feel like people must think I never take him anywhere because everything becomes such a production. Six months ago he was still using the baby swings because we couldn't count on him not letting go but he would scream and complain that the swing was going too high and we were pushing too hard. You would have laughed at how high Shaun considered high. He jumps from higher off the stairs and was swinging higher when he was 6 months old. So we stopped putting him in the swing. If you're going to swing, then SWING for goodness sake! Now that he's only allowed on the big-kid swings he won't go near them. He'll push Ian on the baby ones and push him high, but at the mere mention of a big swing for Shaun the whining starts that 'they're too scary, I go too high, I'm scared I'll fall off, the wind makes my spit hit my face' (seriously!). We've tried everything to try and get him to love the swings and slides again but he's a stubborn little guy and is having none of our schemes. His timidness at parks just makes it so boring because he doesn't want to do anything. He even admits that parks are boring and would rather stay home and pretend to mow the lawn. Go figure.