I’ve always been a believer of getting down and playing with the kids at the end of the day. During that ridiculously difficult time between 5pm-7pm; not quite bedtime but just passed dinner time. Some days, it takes more energy than others.
I can remember when I was pregnant with my second, those little sleep/high fatigue days, my oldest wanted to play “guys” on the toy room floor. Of course I got down there to play and sure enough- 5 minutes into playing- I fell asleep! I woke up to my son telling my husband “Mommy is taking a nap”.
Thankfully I never made that mistake again (or not many more times!). During my drive to work this morning, I started thinking about the times I play with the kids.
You see, we have a bit of a commute going to and from school everyday, so we try to sing or entertain ourselves along the way. One day-about a few months ago- we were driving home and my kids had this idea for a game. Mind you-I had been up since 3:45am, had battled a mentally draining day at work, and the last thing I wanted to do was play. But my son started imagining that the “bad guys” were after us. It started out as “Oh no! Doc Ock is behind us.” And I don’t know what came over me but I fell right into a new world then.
I was pretending we were escaping Doc Ock and Rhino; that I had to put on the Gauntlet and it made my hand come alive and do crazy things (probably not the best thing to do while driving). We then imagined the Gauntlet shattered and our car flew to outer space, where my daughter almost flew out of the car because of lack of gravity if it weren’t for my son lassoing her back to the seat. It was a whole event. It lasted the entire commute home.
Naturally, I was exhausted when I got home, yet somehow rejuvenated seeing my kids imagine and laugh and really enjoy themselves.
Flashforward a few weeks later. We are driving home from school and my son says “Uh oh, Mommy. It’s Rhino!” And there we go back into our world.
It has been several months since we created that game. This morning, on the way to school, my kids *still* asked to play that game. It wasn’t until this moment when I had an epiphany. This game is-quite honestly-very silly and stupid. But it was that we were all acting ridiculous together that made it fun for them. So fun that they continued to ask for it again and again.
Sometimes it’s difficult after a long day’s work, when you’ve had to put out a million fires, only to come to a screaming baby on the way home. There have been so many days I almost cried on the way home wondering how I would manage.
But despite our ever-growing technologically advanced society, our kids really just want time with their parents.
Time to be silly and laugh and create ridiculous stories.
I am definitely not a storyteller like my husband (he can create a fantastic story on the fly), but one morning my son asked me to tell him a story about turtles. I did my very best and it wasn’t great. But you know what? He asked me for the next few days if I could tell him the turtle story.
I am convinced that kids really want a parent who will spend time with them. Forget that you don’t think you are creative enough for creative play, or you look silly to the passersby next to you. Trust me that at the end of the day,there is no match for seeing your child’s eyes light up and laugh hysterically because of something you did or said. I’ve never been a more proud mom than when I see that look.
