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?
