CNN — I’ll begin with a confession. Or maybe it’s a warning. I like playing with my kids. I don’t play with them every day, nor, consistently, every week. But when I do play with them things happen in my brain and body, positive things that counter the oppressive rigidity and repetition of adult life.This happens through all kinds of play, including family-wide games of charades, pretending plants can talk and impromptu lip-sync and dance parties.
Parents, the same could be true for you.
There are a lot of bad reasons to play with your kids. It shouldn’t be about perfecting skill or achieving a particular outcome, which isn’t really play anyway. Or because you feel pressure to be a perfect parent and a perfect parent plays with their kids on a regular basis. Or because they asked you to, and you feel guilty saying “no.” Or because your kids can’t have fun without you. If that’s the case, maybe don’t play with your kids until they master the art of independent or sibling play.
But there are also the good reasons, often overlooked in leisure-phobic culture. Parent-child play, when it authentically appeals to the parent, and works for their schedule, can do grown-ups a lot of good.
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