Daily Dish - Let the games continue
Categories: Newborns, Just for moms, Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Kids 5-7, Kids 8-11, Teens & tweens, Just for dads, Fun & activities
The best parenting advice I've ever heard is also the simplest: play with your kids as long as they will let you.
When people talk about having children, they generally speak of parenting in terms of having a baby. Of course, that is where parenting begins for most of us - caring for an infant. The sleepless nights, the spitty shirts, the dirty diapers - they take over our lives and seem to go on forever. But in reality, those precious baby days are short. Before you know it, that sweet little bundle of love is walking and talking and running you ragged in completely new ways. Years go by and while you are busy doing what a parent does, your kids are busy doing what they do - growing up, up and away.
It's hard to imagine it when your children are small, but someday they will prefer the company of their friends over you. They will stop begging you to play dolls, blocks, board games - and all those other mind-numbing activities that can sometimes feel like just another chore to a weary parent. And when they stop, chances are that you are going to miss it. So, play while the playing is good.
When people talk about having children, they generally speak of parenting in terms of having a baby. Of course, that is where parenting begins for most of us - caring for an infant. The sleepless nights, the spitty shirts, the dirty diapers - they take over our lives and seem to go on forever. But in reality, those precious baby days are short. Before you know it, that sweet little bundle of love is walking and talking and running you ragged in completely new ways. Years go by and while you are busy doing what a parent does, your kids are busy doing what they do - growing up, up and away.
It's hard to imagine it when your children are small, but someday they will prefer the company of their friends over you. They will stop begging you to play dolls, blocks, board games - and all those other mind-numbing activities that can sometimes feel like just another chore to a weary parent. And when they stop, chances are that you are going to miss it. So, play while the playing is good.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Secret Mommy 9-26-2008 @ 8:43PM
This is good advice. My neighbors were just telling me the other day that they are afraid their kids have reached the age where they no longer think their parents are "cool." They are a wonderful family and the kids are great, but they are choosing their friends over their parents for their social time now. I sit and look at my 5 month old and can't imagine that day will ever come, but I know it'll happen quick as a wink.
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