Cap Carpe Diem

I took my five year old to the park for twenty minutes or so after school yesterday to let him run off some steam.

Part of said steam runnage consisted of grabbing a cap off a schoolmate's head and running off waving it at him. His victim set off in hot pursuit laughing, so far as I could tell, with the fun of it as well. I could also tell however - from some sixth sense - that his Dad, who was a little way off, was not best pleased.

I let the chase on for a short while and then wandered over to bring it, discretely I hoped, to a close. At pretty much the same time the other Dad called over to his son that they were going. (I wonder why that was?)

I passed this news on to my boy who threw the cap back to his friend who promptly picked it up.

His Dad told him to put it down again. "Oh God, here we go", thought I so I essentially hustled my little one into picking the redowned hat up and passing it back politely.

"Don't ever grab the cap from X again!" hissed the other father furiously. I let it pass.

Two observations:

1. I think that both the boys were completely unaware of the tension and I bet neither could remember it now.
2. I sympathise with the other guy. I'd rather no caps were snatched off heads, but if it is inevitable I'd rather have a snatcher than a snatchee. Is that shameful?