This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 14, 2025 - April 20, 2025

As a mother of three children aged below 10, I spend a significant amount of time on the benches of playgrounds. With global markets suffering a meltdown because of US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, I’ve come to realise that there are key characteristics in the playground that are similar to the current situation the world is in.

The actors in the playground can be broadly categorised into several groups:

i).    The Alpha: They can be girls or boys; gender really doesn’t matter. What matters is their desire to lead, how confidently they carry themselves and how they persuade, direct or sometimes coerce to get things done their way. One Alpha in the playground is usually manageable, but when there are two or more vying for top spot on the jungle gym, a commotion often follows. It starts with one Alpha child making unreasonable demands of the other children, and the other Alpha — refusing to be bossed around — retaliating. The two will then fiercely compete against each other, with no clear victor at the end of the day. Finally, both will have bumps and bruises to nurse and no one will get off unscathed.

ii).    The Gang: These groups of children understand that they hold bargaining power as a group, and not as an individual. Whenever threatened by the Alpha kids, they band together and choose a spokesperson — “You won’t let us use the jungle gym? Well, then, you can’t use the slide, or those climbing walls or the merry-go-round!” But since they also want time on the jungle gym, they will tell the Alpha children that “we’re willing to negotiate some terms”.

iii).     The Negotiator: Not having enough friends with common interests in the playground, but also not willing to give in to all the demands of the Alphas, these children end up negotiating. Cognisant of the fact that they will never be as strong as the Alphas, or have a group large enough to band together like The Gang, their tactics are about self-preservation and suffering the least pain from the situation. They will attempt to negotiate with the Alphas, giving in to some of their demands but never allowing the Alphas to take away their advantage. “How about you have two of these sweets that you really want from me, but you allow me to climb halfway up the jungle gym?” Not being able to reach the top must sting, but these children are wise to make sure they still have some sweets in their pocket while being able to make it halfway up the gym.

iv).     The Moderator: In my opinion, these are the most powerful actors in the playground. They are the parents, grandparents and guardians of the children. When things get out of hand, they swoop in, chide the said troublemaker (usually their own children), tell them to “play nice” and send them on their way. Otherwise, they stand on the periphery and keep an eye on the situation at the playground.

Children often leave the playground having forged new friendships, no matter how badly certain actors behaved. They come back the next day bearing no grudges over what happened the day before.

As adults, we wish for the Alphas to be more reasonable, for the ones with more bargaining power to help the downtrodden. We wish negotiators needn’t give away their limited sweet stash and could have a little more say. We even hope for a moderator to step in and remind the Alphas to “play nice”.

But the world outside the playground is very different, isn’t it?

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