Playing with kids bores the hell out of me.

I’m having one of those days, if I’m going to be completely honest;
I have a lot of those days. I feel the need to say something that not a lot of mum bloggers
say. Playing with kids is boring. Not all the time, but a decent chunk of it.

But little poems like this do the Facebook rounds, they are a bit lovely and they remind me to slow down and stick my nose in the baby’s ear and breath in that sweet brain air at least twice a day. They even make me tear up because I’m a bit of a freak like that but more than anything they make me feel a bit cafluffled. Enough with all the freakin pressure.

Yes the baby is going to grow up really soon, they don’t stay little for long but sometimes you just need to read every second page of the bedtime book then go and drink wine. And seriously, seriously? How quickly would the house descend into complete crack-den-ness if I this advice were to be taken literally all the time? Docs would be called.

So this is how I console myself when I feel like a bad parent because I couldn’t be bothered playing with my kids;

One, when we were kids, if an adult wanted to play with us, it would mean they were weird.

Two; David Lancy, Ph.D, professor of anthropology helpfully points out that “Throughout history and in the majority of the world’s cultures, adults rarely play with children.”His blog will totally give you heaps of justification for hiding in the pantry from your kids.* If this concept interests you there is a great article that looks into Lancy’s research called Leave Those Kids Alone.

Three, the people best suited to play with kids are other kids, they do a much better job at it anyway.   

I’m always seeing studies by experts touting the importance of adult-child play time. You should probably listen to them as they are actually qualified to tell you these things unlike myself. But all I hear is “Interacting with your child is so important and here’s how you should do it…blah blah blah, hide and seek, blah
blah blah, imaginary car game, ra ra – bang on a bit more…dress ups.” What the hell is wrong with developing vocabulary and spending quality time together over creating art, doing some housework, cooking, reading a book, going to the shops or beach?

You know, regular stuff that either has to be done or that everyone can enjoy.

Here’s the thing; kids couldn’t give two craps what you’re doing so long as they are getting attention. I could say just about anything in an excited manner and Scout would jump onboard. “Wanna rearrange the furniture in the lounge room today?”, “how about we see how long we can stand really still for?, I bet you can’t hide from mummy for five minutes without me finding you? Let’s dress the baby in silly outfits and take pictures of him!

So enough with the freakin pressure already, cut yourself some slack, make your kids cut you some slack too and know that you are not the only one who gets really bloody bored with their kids sometimes, I’m with you.

Right now I have an abundance of lemons and a bored toddler and you can be sure as shit that as soon as I get off this computer, I will not be sitting on a tiny chair making something with Play Dough or having a tea party, I will be walking the kids to the shops to buy butter before coming home and making lemon curd** with a stupidly excited little helper. When we are finished I will drink actual tea while she makes imaginary lemon curd out of Play Dough in her tiny kitchen and feeds it to Yoda. And I dare say it’s going to be pretty damn enjoyable for everyone involved.

Happy days

 

*There’s no way I’m the only one who does that?

**I will be using this lemon curd recipe