How often do you play with your children? Really get down on the floor and get into their world? I know I did not do it as often as I should have. Being a single mother means time is always at a premium and to be honest, I don’t like playing Barbies.
Having said that, it is so important that we play with our children. It shows them they are important to us, we are willing to take the time to do something they love.
Another benefit of playing with our children is that they often work out things they are feeling or experiencing through play. For instance, Hailey didn’t talk a lot about her father not being around but I noticed when we were playing Barbie that Ken never came out of the toy box and Hailey mostly played with Skipper.
When I asked where Ken was she told me he didn’t live at their house any more. Hailey said Barbie was sad and so was Skipper because she was really Ken and Barbie’s baby and not Barbie’s sister. Now Barbie was tired all the time and Skipper had to do stuff alone.
That stopped me in my tracks because Hailey was living out her life with her Barbies. I think she had forgotten how important a Daddy was and I needed to show her that Daddy’s and Mommy’s care about their babies.
Eventually Hailey moved on to more board games and video games but I never forgot the lessons Barbie taught me. I didn’t want to be that Barbie family. There wasn’t anything I could do about Hailey’s father but I could make sure that Hailey knew how important she was to me and that no matter how many hours I worked she was my priority.
It wasn’t easy. Sometimes I just wanted to turn a movie on for her and quietly go about what I needed to do. Instead I tried to make time to just be with Hailey everyday, and we played. I learned a lot about my girl and more importantly about how she perceived the people around me.
So, play with your kids, you never know what you might learn.