...man, it's really hard for me to gauge where the line is, between what amounts to a sort of horseplay, where people are fooling around and basically play-fighting and it's all in good fun, and cases where it isn't actually fun for one of the people involved. But... try to play nice, kids.
This is only a tangentially related anecdote, but:
The five-year-old has an eight-year-old friend. And apparently, their current favorite thing to do is a 'fighting game,' which apparent involves a lot of pushing and shoving and knocking each other down. And their fathers were kind of eying this, trying to figure out whether they needed to intervene.
So the eight-year-old's father says, to his daughter: "Hey, be careful, she's smaller than you."
And she says: "It's okay! She's tough! And she never gives up!"
And the five-year-old was, in fact, having a great time, even while being smaller and getting knocked over a lot. It was very much all in good fun, in that case.
It's something that makes me happy to see. I mean... this kid is the girliest of girls, in some ways. Her favorite color is pink, she is very interested in wearing pretty clothes and playing pretend games with her dolls. Those are all great things, and I'm glad she enjoys them.
And she also gets to rough-house with this other little girl, and have a great time doing it.
I mean... I am myself someone who came to mock-combat, as a fun thing to do, a little bit late. But it's something I got to really enjoy, for a year or so, in the form of playing with foam swords with my best friend, while studying historical swordplay a little bit, from a very cool guy who studies it and teaches it.
And then my best friend and his wife decided to have a kid, and to ask me if I wanted to live with them, and help raise that kid. And we stopped taking the class. But we told the instructor why... and that maybe someday, if the kid seemed the sort of kid to be into it, we'd be back. Because he taught kids, too.
It's been five years. And... I think this kid is going to really, really enjoy that class. ^_^
