Let Them Be Little

written by Jenny Fast

Recently I visited a friend whose children are near the same ages as mine (3years and 1.5years), and as all of our kiddos were running around the house playing and roughhousing, a screaming war broke out. I’m not sure if this is an all-girl thing or not (I’ve got two girls), but mine do this on a regular basis – one of them will let out a high-pitched, looooouuuuud scream, and the other will repeat. Then it turns into a screamy free-for-all, and I just try to tune it out and continue making dinner (okaaaaay, sometimes I join in).

On this particular occasion, however, the friends I was visiting immediately shut down the girls’ game-o-screams with a stern “NO YELLING” scold. I laughed when the kids tried “screaming” in whispers after that, but I did have a few questions for my friend – the first being “Why no yelling?”

The answer was, “it’s just too loud, I can’t think.” And that I understood, because we’ve all been in the position of trying to have a conversation while being flanked by screamy-kids… but then I followed up with, “when do you let them yell?”

And the answer this time was, “um, never.”

NEVER? As in, never-ever? Like, Never-Ever-Ever?

                                 But… when do they get to be kids?

Listen, this post is not going to be some overwhelming “this is how you do it right” parenting post. My main objective here is to introduce myself, my style, and give a little insight into how *I* parent and interact with my kids. Hopefully you’ll find some funny, honest, heartwarming stories of my experiences and ideas that speak to you as a parent, too! I believe there is too much judgment floating around out there in this scary world of parenting to dole it out myself, so instead I’ll just share (and encourage you to share) some great stuff and cross my fingers that you’ll be inspired along the way. 

Before I had children, I (like many) had this image in my mind of wonderfully well-behaved, quiet, clean, polished kids. Now, I think that image is so… BORING. Now, I realize that I don’t want my children to be little quiet miniature-adults… instead, my girls are inspiring ME to want to be a loud, messy, super-fun giant KID!

I can honestly say I love playing with play-doh, and coloring, and painting, and building towers out of mega-bloks… and I let my girls lead me in all of those things. Their creativity is so amazing and inspiring, and I’m just now beginning to see that this is SUCH a good thing. When my toddler decides she wants to see what it would feel like to dump an entire bucket of squinkies (think teeny-tiny rubber figurines) over her head, SURE, I cringe, because ohmigoshihavetocleanthatup… but then I remind myself that she’s really just curious, and the aesthetics are new and cool to her. When my preschooler wants to mix all the play-doh together in one big eventual-brown lump, my mild OCD tendencies scream in my head that “you don’t mix colors!”… but then I remind myself that she’s experimenting, creating, and learning – and I definitely don’t want to stifle that. (Plus play-doh is like dirt-cheap, and you can even make it yourself!)  

That’s my main point here… I don’t want to stifle creativity, experience, or learning in my children. It can be difficult at times, especially when I’m trying to clean or cook or be an adult and my kids are off painting each other with nail polish or covering the dog in stickers… but I remind myself daily that I need to LET THEM BE CHILDREN.

And to me, this is what that means:

Let them be children.

Let them get dirty.

Let them play.

Let them lead.

Let them mix colors.

Let them jump on the couch.

(Let them jump off the couch.)

Let them pretend.

Let them dress-up.

Let them build.

Let them create.

Let them imagine.

Let them perform.

Let them yell.

Let them scream.

Let them be LOUD. 

Let them BE.

Is anyone beginning to see why my family and I love Kaleidoscape? 

Let’s see… a giant studio where kids of all ages (really… all ages. I play dress up almost every time I’m there!) can use their imaginations, build cool stuff, pretend to be an astronaut or a princess or a pirate or a wolf, play with a new sensory table each week, and basically just practice being a kid? WE’RE IN.

How about you, parents? What kind of play are your children into lately? 

How are you letting them be kids?