Play Chase With Your Kids - While You Can!

Hi,

I’ve just found a lovely article by Lindsay Small. It’s aimed at parents of toddlers, but it can also apply to home day care providers.

Here it is:

Earlier this week I went to collect my kids from the park and, being a little early, sat on a bench to watch as they finished a game. On a nearby bench sat another mother with her son, who looked to be about 3. They had obviously been waiting for a while, and the little chap looked bored.

While his mother, who was smartly dressed as if she had just come from work, read a newspaper, the boy swung his legs up and down, fidgeted, and looked for something to do. Eventually he saw his mother’s handbag (purse) and decided to play a game. I watched him carefully climb down from the bench, and then - with a daring look at his mother - grab the bag and run away, giggling enormously. Unfortunately, the bag tumbled to the ground and coins, pieces of paper, lipsticks and a hundred other bits and pieces ran everywhere. He stopped, horrified, and his bottom lip trembled as he waited to see how his mother would react. I anticipated an explosion.

What happened next took me completely by surprise. The mother looked at the contents of the bag on the ground. She looked at her son. She thought about it. And then she leapt up, threw her newspaper down on the ground with the rest of her things, and with giant exaggerated movements and cries of “I’m coming to get you!!” she starting chasing the little boy, this way and that, ducking and dodging and chasing some more. They were having a wonderful time, laughing breathlessly together, so that everyone around them had to stop to see what was going on, and laugh too. Before long they collapsed in a dusty heap on the ground by the bench and picked everything up together.

I laughed along with the mother and her son, but at the same time I felt a pang of sadness. My children are toddlers no longer, and we no longer play games of chase in the park. As I watched that mother I remembered the times when my kids wanted to play and I was too busy, or too interested in my newspaper, or involved in some other “adult” thing. And I wish I had thrown my adult world down on the ground and played chase with my kids just a little bit more.

“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” Confucius

Lindsay Small is the creator and editor of Activity Village - providing the ultimate one-stop resource for parents and teachers looking to educate and entertain their kids. Visit the website at http://www.ActivityVillage.co.uk and subscribe to the free newsletter at http://www.ActivityVillage.co.uk/free_newsletter.co.uk.

Talk soon,
Mary

P.S. Thousands of future or current home daycare providers just like you have already signed up to my ‘how to start a home daycare’ newsletter. It’s getting a bit overwhelming and I may cap signups soon, but for the time being you can still join. Don’t worry, it’s free. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail below:

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