There’s a little park close to where I live, with a small children’s playground in it. It’s just a couple of swings, a see-saw and a slide, but you would think it was Disney World by the way the children delight in it. I was walking past the other day, as I often do, and I paused for a moment just to listen to the laughter of the little children at play, and it truly filled my heart with a sense of joy and wonder to hear their cries of excited mirth. As I turned to go along my way, however, the spell I had fallen under was suddenly broken when one of the little brats shouted, “oi, grandad, have you got any fags on you?”
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FGS don’t interact with the little angels else there will be a lot worse said !
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They say that children should be seen, and not heard, but it is never explained why they should be seen. 
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We have a fenced play area on The Green opposite my home and the “play committee” even re equipped it after some little scroat torched the previous installation. Soon after the refitting it became a night haunt for shooting up and leaving all needles etc for the youngsters to pick up🤬
Fantastic, Harbal, even the little angel in need of a smoke! 
Did he ask for a light too?
Some people dislike living near schools and parks because of the noise of children and dogs, but I love that sound - infinitely better than the sound of vehicles!
When we first visited the orphanages in remote Russia, I was delighted to discover that the sound of children playing is the same everywhere. But then again, when my newly adopted toddler son collapsed on the floor to throw a temper tantrum, I turned to my husband nonplussed and remarked over the din that that skill too was apparently also universal.
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How easily we forget what it was really like being a kid🤣
We hear the blissful sound of happy playing through rose tinted ear muffs….
While really, if you remember, it was all pretty savage. Fighting , bullying, cliques, nicking each other’s stuff, bunking off school, smoking, hiding what you were up to from grown ups, going where you shouldn’t, breaking things……
I remember it quite well enough not to assume that a child’s laughter is innocent. 
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Exactly! Don’t let ‘em fool you into a false sense of security 
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I remember my hero, my dad, telling me about the 7 stages of man when I was young.
He was absolutely right too x
These days…many have lost the innocence of childhood at 7 rather than 14
I used to play " make-believe" at high school with like minded innocent friends… until we looked weird aged 12/13
We were very alone I have to say!!!
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Can you be persuaded to give us more detail, Rhian? I’m sure I can’t be the only one left in a state of extreme curiosity by that. 
It was usually re-enacting scenes from our history lessons about Kings and Queens of England and Wales!
Or the legends of the Mabinogi.
Bless!
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Well I can honestly say I never witnessed anything quite like that going on at high school. I think most of us maintained a complete disinterest in the Kings and Queens of England, Wales, and anywhere else, even when the history teacher was doing his best to focus our attention on them. We certainly wouldn’t have given them a second thought outside the classroom. I don’t know about the Mabinogi, because I wouldn’t have realised what it was.
Sounds like you were a delightful child, Rhian.
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We have a school & a kids play park below our house, ( it was all fields with horses, cows & sheep before), how so many kids can make so much noise when out in the playground I’ll never know, screaming, shouting, if the wind is in the wrong direction it’s worse. I can also hear the teachers on the tannoy giving directions when they do sports too.
The school is the noisiest, don’t hear anything from the kids play park.
I preferred the fields.
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We discovered that when we first moved to Italy and lived in a condominium of 12 family homes.
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