Playful Posts I Could Have Written

So it turns out that restricting myself to blog about only one thing for a week is kind of boring for me. I am no longer feeling inspired to blog specifically about playful parenting (though I admit that making myself think and write about it this past week has definitely helped me to BE a more playful parent). That said, there are a few more posts that I was going to write, and I feel some sort of obligation to at least mention their would-be content.

1. The Bedtime Lady aka "Multiple Personality Disorder Parenting"

My sister Fiona commented on this post, that she hoped I would include stories about the pizza lady and the corn muffin lady in my tales of playful parenting, assuming that those ladies existed for my kids. The pizza lady and the corn muffin lady were both characters who I used to pretend to be when Fiona and I were living in Vermont (I was 16, she was 13). It was mostly just a distraction from our dreadfully boring existence, but I think I managed to entertain both of us fairly well (the pizza lady made REAL pizza, the corn muffin lady made REAL corn muffins, both ladies felt quite passionate about their work and liked to belittle Fiona for her ignorance in the kitchen). The pizza lady and the corn muffin lady have not yet introduced themselves to Luke, Jaz, Zeb and Leo, but their sister, The Bedtime Lady, used to visit quite a bit.

Basically, I realized that Luke and Jaz (at the time Zeb was just a baby) were having a very hard time listening to me, their mom, at bedtime. But they were happy to listen to me, pretending to be The Bedtime Lady, instead. The Bedtime Lady is a magical woman whose job is to fly around from house to house, putting children to bed. She has a strong accent, and is often mixed up about bedtime routines (i.e. she puts pajama shirts on legs, attempts to brush teeth using a tube of toothpaste rather than a tooth brush, and reads books from back to front). She also has a terrible memory and can never remember anyone's correct name (referring to the kids "Rufus and Hector" one minute and "Marcus and Sebastian" the next). The Bedtime Lady was so good at getting the kids to bed that she came every night for quite some time (until the kids started requesting "Mom" at bedtime, and the real me was happy to step in. These days, we generally only call on The Bedtime Lady in desperate times . . . assuming we can find it within ourselves to shell out the dough (aka playfulness) to hire her.

Likewise, The Bike Lady used to bike the kids to school in the morning (via bakfiets) on days when the kids were feeling especially resistant to our chosen mode of transportation. The Bike Lady is incredibly competitive and tries to pass all of the other bikers on the bike path (but since she's riding the bakfiets, she usually fails, much to her great dismay). The kids think she's hilarious.

And Stacey, the teenage baby-sitter, used to take the kids grocery shopping on the days when I just couldn't seem to manage all of the children in the store myself. Stacey doesn't know where any of the things our family likes to buy are kept (so the kids have to direct her around the store), speaks with a valley girl accent, and has no idea about the proper care of babies (i.e. she tries to put itty bitty babies in the grocery cart and then offers to feed them things like ice cream and cookies when they fuss! Luckily, Luke and Jaz are there to help teach her how things are done). Stacey has embarrassed me from time to time--her appearances are generally quite public--but a little embarrassment can be worth it for happy kids and bags full of groceries.

2. Life is a Musical

I do not have a good singing voice, but my kids don't know that. They love it when I sing (usually, as long as I'm not too loud). They especially love it when I sing silly, rhyming songs about what we're doing in that moment (or what we're going to do next). Sometimes I use the tune to a song we all know, and sometimes I just make up the tune, and sometimes there's no tune at all.

Dancing is almost equally effective as singing. There is something called a "happy dance," that looks like a cross between bad dancing and bad cheer leading that fills the kids' eyes with wonder. It's very enthusiastic and may lead to pulled muscles, and feelings of regret hours later. The kids love it.

3. Detectives on the Loose

Over the years, we have come up with a few versions of the basic "I Spy" game. The basic version, in case you are not familiar, involves saying, "I spy with my little eye something _____ [insert color of choice]," and then everyone has to guess what you see. Similar variations include spying shapes, letters and numbers. Sometimes we change the format slightly and I turn the kids into shape (or letter, or number, or word) detectives, and they have to, for example, count how many circles they can see in the post office (while I wait in line for a bazillion hours . . . our local post office is a waiting nightmare). Or the letter detectives might have to find a bizarre letter, like "Q" or "Z." The number detectives are occasionally asked to do some basic math, adding up the first five numbers they find in any given area. These are all great games for times when you might otherwise find yourself "hushing" your kids and willing time to move faster.

4. Bunny, Fox, Wolf

Lena learned this technique from her very own playful parents. When wiping off the kids faces with a wet cloth, post messy-meal, you ask, "do you want the bunny, the fox, or the wolf?" The bunny does little, tentative, dabbing wipes. The fox is a little more aggressive, but still rather dainty. And the wolf just eats the whole face up at once. This game turned an despised daily (sometimes 3 or 4 times daily) necessity into a easy, fun, playful time. And the thoughts behind it can be applied to all sorts of required grooming tasks. For instance, when getting a kid's hair wet in the bath: "do you want the rain, waterfall, or ocean wave?" It gives kids control AND disguises a potentially less-pleasant requirement as a game.

* * * * * * * *

Surely there will be more playful parenting to come in this space, but I'm going to leave it at this for now since there are so many other things I've been itching to write about. I'd still love to hear more of YOUR playful parenting stories. I, for one, can always use new ideas and inspiration.

This may look like playful parenting in action,
but I assure you it was NOT my idea
Luke and Jaz at 2.5, naked in the leaves