When you have tall people in the family, you get used to 'hiring' them out to strangers.It isn't unusual for us to be approached in the supermarket by shorter people, asking if my husband can get something down off the top shelf for them. He always says yes and usually jokes with them that they, in return, should get him something from the bottom shelf, 'so I don't have to bend all the way down there.'
Last week, it happened with my teenager. We were in Brisbane and had called in at Hungry Jacks to grab some lunch before driving home. I was standing in line with my boys, waiting to order, when I was approached by an older woman who said, 'Excuse me, would I please be able to borrow your son?'
My boy is 195 cm tall, so I figured it would be for something height-related. It turned out the lady's grandson, a toddler, was stuck inside the very top of the structure in the HJ's playground. She had asked the girl behind the counter for help, but the girl didn't think she'd be able to fit in there (my teen, apart from being tall, is also very slim).
So, off went both of my boys to help. My Littlest Caveman was able to get right up inside the structure himself and find exactly where the toddler was. The poor little thing had managed to get all the way up there to sit in the 'helicopter' seat, but then couldn't get back down. Once they had located him, my bigger boy was able, with some maneuvering, to get himself up there to retrieve him.
On a side note, it's actually quite funny watching a tall, lanky teenager trying to bend his body around all the twists and turns in one of those playgrounds! There is a reason the rules say the maximum height for children to play is 120cm.
He managed to get the little boy down, bit by bit, through the structure - much to the relief of the toddler and his grandma - then we had our lunch and drove home, feeling very proud that we'd been able to help.
The real bonus for my big boy, of course, was that he got to climb around in a HJ's playground ... he hasn't been allowed to do that for years!
