I Cried Today

[permanentvacation]

I literally cried today because one of my daycare kids said that their mother plays with her. My daycare child told me that she and her mom plays "My Little Pony and Barbie dolls inside and jump rope together outside." I immediately teared up out of happiness for her because so many of my parents do not play with their children! I told the little girl that she is very lucky to have a mom that plays with her.

The sad thing is that this is the first child that told me that their parent plays with them in quite some time. Typically I am told that the parent watches tv or cleans the house while they play by themselves in their room. And when I talk to the parents, they verify that they don't play with their children. They say things like they are too tired after work and they have errands to run and chores to do on the weekends. It just shocks me that so many parents literally never play with their kids.

So when this one little girl started naming off things that she and her mother play together, I just started crying!

[KidGrind]

I literally cried today because one of my daycare kids said that their mother plays with her. My daycare child told me that she and her mom plays "My Little Pony and Barbie dolls inside and jump rope together outside." I immediately teared up out of happiness for her because so many of my parents do not play with their children! I told the little girl that she is very lucky to have a mom that plays with her.

The sad thing is that this is the first child that told me that their parent plays with them in quite some time. Typically I am told that the parent watches tv or cleans the house while they play by themselves in their room. And when I talk to the parents, they verify that they don't play with their children. They say things like they are too tired after work and they have errands to run and chores to do on the weekends. It just shocks me that so many parents literally never play with their kids.

So when this one little girl started naming off things that she and her mother play together, I just started crying!

I think it’s neat that DCM has the time to play with her child!

I don’t remember my mother playing with me a lot. As I read your post I literally thought, “I think it’s great. Many parents don’t play with their children, mine didn’t. And I don’t feel slighted or that I missed out on anything. Mother was working hard and building a business to provide for us.”

And then the memories of her playing tea party with me, monopoly, spades, jacks and other fun times came flooding back to me.

So thank you for leading to the memories of playtime with my mother coming to the forefront. Neat stuff…...

[Thriftylady]

I don't think I ever really "played" with my kids. My mom didn't "play" with me. She did things with me, and I did things with my kids. By doing things I mean crafts, activities, going to the park, etc. But not "playing" as in with toys. Once, I took a vacation day when DS was little and we went to mini golf and out to lunch, so things like that. I think everyone spends time with their children differently. Now I know some parents don't really spend any time with their kids. That is sad.

[Miss A]

My mom didn't "play" with me, but we did things together all the time. We went for walks as a family each night after supper if the weather allowed. She let me brush her hair and paint her nails, we sat together and read books, she spent time outside when her kids played outside, she volunteered in my class while I was in public school, and she walked me to and from school each and every morning. She let me help her make supper, and she would bake with me. My mom was a great mom, all the while never getting on the floor to play barbies or baby dolls.

[Heidi]

My mom didn't "play" with me, but we did things together all the time. We went for walks as a family each night after supper if the weather allowed. She let me brush her hair and paint her nails, we sat together and read books, she spent time outside when her kids played outside, she volunteered in my class while I was in public school, and she walked me to and from school each and every morning. She let me help her make supper, and she would bake with me. My mom was a great mom, all the while never getting on the floor to play barbies or baby dolls.

same here. I can honestly say I rarely "played" with my kids. Honestly, it's boring to play with a 3 year old. That doesn't mean I don't like their company, or that I'll never play with one, but it wouldn't be often.

That said, it's nice your dcm seems to enjoy it, and it certainly beats parking them in front of the TV.

[Ariana]

My mom NEVER played with me! She was not a very warm sort of person from my memories. She is very warm with my kids but she rarely plays with them. I play with my own kids when I feel like doing it but it's not often. I spend a LOT of time with my kids and we goof around a lot, I read to them, we watch movies together, play Candy Crush together (we have a team name!) and we do countless other things together.

My husband is a much better player than I am. He plays with them quite a bit as he is a big kid himself. I see it as his biggest strength as a parent. I am a big proponent of kids playing themselves, either alone or with other kids. It is what I did as a kid and I think kids spend way too much time with adults nowadays.

Of course spending time with your kids, no matter what you are doing is key in my opinion

[daycarediva]

same here. I can honestly say I rarely "played" with my kids. Honestly, it's boring to play with a 3 year old. That doesn't mean I don't like their company, or that I'll never play with one, but it wouldn't be often.

That said, it's nice your dcm seems to enjoy it, and it certainly beats parking them in front of the TV.

This,

I very rarely sat on the floor and played toys with them. I DID/DO other things with them (we ride bikes, hike, go to the park and nature trails, go to museums, read, watch movies, talk, play games, etc).

I disliked most toys as a child (haha, I really did, I didn't even own dolls) and I can honestly say my parents NEVER played toys with me.

I have one child who CANNOT PLAY without me/an adult, and that's annoying as all get out.

About 80% of my current crew has parents that engage with the children in some way, pretty much daily.

[permanentvacation]

You all might have not actually played toys with your kids, but you did engage in activities with them.

The majority of the daycare kids that I have had over the past few years seem to get no fun interaction with their parents. Their parents don't ride bikes with them, don't color with them, don't sing songs with them, don't anything with them except give them a computer device of some sort to occupy themselves with, plop them in front of the television, tell them to go to their room to play, or allow the child to play in the living room while the parent watches television. A handful of them take their children to the park on occasion, but not many even do that.

I am just really disheartened by the amount of parents that I have had that seem to feel bothered or annoyed that their child is in their presence. So when the one little girl told me about her mother playing with me, I was overcome with happiness for her.

My mother played with me and I played with my kids. I don't remember much of my life before I was 8 years old. By that time, I was more interested in playing games and my mom and I played things like Monopoly, Rummy (the card game), Jacks, and Atari games. We would often play one Monopoly game for days. When we got tired of playing or it got too late, we would just leave the game on the table and come back to it the next day or so. One night, we stayed up all night playing the game Asteroids on Atari and we flipped the game over and over a few times.

I played with my kids. I played Barbies, Little People, My Little Pony, etc. and as they got older, I would take my kids and the daycare kids across the street to a big field and play all sorts of sports games with them like kickball, baseball, soccer, etc.