04 Jan Play: A Worthy New Years Resolution

I ran quickly through Six Flags Great America, chasing my ten year old daughter, Grace, and my sister in law Lisa, who both had caught the roller-coaster bug. It was only a few days after Christmas and happened to be a warm-ish day for Chicago, 40 degrees. 

We ran through lines for roller coasters that would normally take 90 minutes to get through, riding and re-riding coasters until we were called back to the rest of our crew to begin the process of exiting the park. I hadn’t ridden a roller coaster in years until our family took a trip to Dutch Wonderland in PA in October, and there is only one coaster there I would call “intense.”

Yet there I was on the “X Factor”, holding my daughters hand and praying with all my heart that this coaster was built well enough to keep me alive. It’s not really my thing to run all over amusement parks riding roller coasters over and over again. And yet, as I saw the excitement and joy on my kids faces, I entered in with vigor. 

We had a blast during our week long trip to Chicago, from going out to a fancy play of the Wizard Oz and riding on roller coasters at Six Flags to simpler offerings of card and board games and ice skating. With no school or work to do, we could enter wholeheartedly into uninhibited play.

Sometime in the midst of all this amazing play, I had a revelation: I need to play more. Don’t get me wrong – I love my life. I love being a homeschooling mom, taking classes for seminary, and seeking to bring order and structure to our little tribe. And yet, as most mothers would say, there is always something to do. Something necessary. And that something, whatever it may be, often keeps me from spending more time just playing with my kids.

Speaking Our Children’s Love Languages

Is play important? Well, I could go into a list of all the therapeutic benefits of play, but that’s not really what I’ve been thinking about. Play is important to my kids. it’s their primary love language and as Fred Rogers rightly said, play is the work of childhood. 

Yes they know that I love them when I make them a nice dinner, braid their hair, or teach them math (and it’s true that we often have fun doing school together). But they get super excited when they ask me to play hide and seek and, in spite of the dishes in the sink, I start counting. 

When I let them dress me up for imaginative play time, dive off the diving board with them at our neighborhood pool, or go sledding with them on a snowy day, I see the joy on their faces because I’m entering into their world and thus, entering into their joy. 

I’ve had a variety of goals or resolutions through the years at the head of a new year but this year one of my top goals is to let go of all the excuses I have not to play and JUST PLAY. Yes the laundry still needs to be done. Yes, the math needs to be done. Yes, the dinner needs to be made. But there is always time for a game of hide and seek. 

How about you? What are your kids favorite ways to play? How can you enter into their play and speak their love languages this year?

Children don’t need more things. The best toys a child can have is a parent who gets down on the floor and plays with them.” ~ Anonymous