Wurzel's thread made me think of this:
Each of the times my husband was deployed to Iraq, we lived on post. Our court housed about 15 other families, half of which were families waiting for their Soldier to return as well.
There were about 15 boys in our court between the ages of 6 - 9. Each day after school all of the moms would park their lawn chairs out on their own lawn (or in pairs).
Every single day all 15 boys would don their 'army gear' and play. They'd roam from yard to yard until they were all exhausted, after which each of us would call the kids in for the evening.
It took me a while to pick up on it, but those boys knew if one of the others was worried about their dad that day. They picked up on that even sometimes before the Moms would.
If they pulled the 'medic' armband an assigned a medic for that day's games, that meant that nobody was allowed to die in that day's play. Their little battles would still be rowdy & 'bloody' but nobody was dying that day. Those kids are amazing that they would recognize that and develope their own little system.
