sandboxes: the unnecessary evil

It's quite challenging to have kids cooped up in the house all day, especially toddlers. There's only so much coloring, hiding and seeking, and watching episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba and Sesame Street that our 23 month old Spaghetti can do before she decides to venture into pulling pots out of the kitchen cabinet, unrolling the toilet paper or climb furniture. So to relieve her (and us) from cabin fever we try to get outside as much as we can. The other day, Pretty Pants and I took Spaghetti to Golden Gate Park Children's Playground to expend some of her energy.

She spent a good 45 minutes going down 3 slides she had in her rotation before her attention span started to dwindle. Noticing her restlessness, my husband and I redirected her attention to the swings across the park. "Look Spaghetti, look at the swings!! Whee!" As we made our way to the swings we crossed over children playing in the sand. Spaghetti was very curious about this scene as she dug her feet deeper and deeper into the grainy substance while we walked along. Just as she was about to pause to reach her hand out to actually touch the strange mass, Pretty Pants made one quick scoop to pick our daughter up in his arms and carry her to the swing. No sand for her, he glanced at me knowingly.

I don't know about you but I don't get the whole sandbox thing. Why are children so intrigued by it? What makes it fun? For me, it pretty much seems like quite a nuisance cleaning between crevices of your child's body already but after a romp in the sand? No thanks, I'll pass. It's bad enough that as parents we have to clean up after them on natural spills like poop and pee, acid reflux or spaghetti dribble. But really? Throwing your kid in the sand to let them become more dirty... I just don't get it. Not to mention the inevitable sand in the shoes, sand in the socks, sand surprising you in your car, that's a lot of sand!

The only place sand is good for is at the beach. It's the only place that makes sense. Living in Northern California, there's not much time spent on a warm beach. So I know that if we are going to the beach, that we're going to be there for a whole day and not just one quick jump in the sandbox. The trade off of time versus cleanup just makes sense to me at the beach. Allow your child to build sandcastles? Fine! Bury their bodies up to their necks in sand? Even better! Got some of that sand in your behind? Awesome, let me take you to the shore so we can rinse some of that off and if it's not completely clean there's a shower in the parking lot. Seriously, keep the sand where it belongs... on the beach.