The Pleasures of Playgroup

If your child is going to spend the first 20 minutes of playgroup working the room wielding a toy, you'd like to think it wouldn't be the plastic axe.

First impressions, as they say.

The edges weren't sharp but, if swung with the vigour he applies to the hammer and peg set at home, there'd most certainly be tears. A lump or bruise too, I imagine.

I experience nerves with each new child he approaches. More prominent though is trust. He's not one of those kids who instinctively endangers others (and, believe me, those kids exist); nor one who has ever even accidentally hurt another child.

After a while, my trust turns to pride. It's great that he is so warm and proactive with others. And I love that he does this with a bit of edge and attitude.

This is usually - and thankfully - a little less edgy than the axe. In one of our earlier sessions he walked around with a rubber snake dangled around his neck. It would have been a display wasted on an audience in his country of birth. Here there's respect for a wannabe Steve Irwin.

And, in a room of strange mums, it was priceless.