| MercatorNet | April 12, 2017
Why we should play with our kids
Playing benefits both parent and child.
Recently, I’ve come to a realisation: I need to play more with my 10-month old daughter. When she was little, I would put her in her bouncer or on her mat, within view of me and whatever I was doing. Now that she’s crawling, she follows me as I move around the house doing this and that. But while she might whinge for my attention, I noticed that the moment I sit down on the ground with her or show her some toys, she is immediately content.
I noticed the same thing while visiting a friend last week. Her three-month old son was being fussy in his bouncer as we sat and talked. But the minute she put him beside her, he grabbed her thumbs and was as happy as Larry. All these babies want is to hang out! And really, playing is a beneficial thing for both parents and kids:
It's a chance to stop
Our lives keep getting busier and busier, and if we don't watch out, they'll just fly by in a flutter of feeding, laundry, and sleeping schedules. One of the best things about breastfeeding is that you're forced to sit and put everything else aside while baby feeds. Playing, even for 10 minutes, can be this new time to stop and focus. And doesn't research show that a more collected mind makes for a happier parent?
Enjoy your kids
There's so much joy that comes from being around kids, but if we don't actively remember this, we'll spend our days frustrated at all the things they do. I find that stopping to play with my daughter helps me to see the little things that bring me joy, and then recall them easily when she's having a naughty day. It gives me time to notice her cheeky grin, her funny singing, the new things she can do from day to day. Before we know it, she'll be grown up and independent, and I'll be wishing for more time like this with her!
It’s practice in giving them our full attention
I read something just yesterday that entrepreneur and motivational speaker Dale Partridge posted on his Facebook page: ‘A friend of mine has 10 children and he told me, "Listen to anything your children want to tell you. Because if you don't listen to the little stuff when they're little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big." Remember, to our kids every conversation is a big conversation. Your heart isn't transferred in just the love that you give them but the willingness to stop and eagerly hear them.’
This is so true! It reminds me of something I remember hearing about my dad: that even when we were little, if we were trying to tell him something, he'd stop what he was doing, come down to our level, and have a conversation with us. He and my mum treated us with respect, and as such I've always had no problems with sharing things with them even as I've gotten older. This is why I think that sitting and playing, before my daughter can talk, is good practice for me to be able to give her my time in the future.
Play with dad, and play with mum, teaches different things
I've seen it quite clearly with my daughter: I generally play with her quite calmly and using her toys, while with her dad it's all rough-and-tumble and lots of laughs. More and more, research is showing how both types of play are important for a child's emotional and social development. Mum's and dad's styles may be miles apart but one thing is clear here: playing with your child is a good thing, for both learning and bonding purposes.
April 12, 2017
Yesterday the Jewish feast of Passover began. Tomorrow the Christian world begins its own Paschal season, in which the death and resurrection of Christ are commemorated. As Fr James Schall points out in his essay today, these two events are always found together in the Gospels, attesting to the central and absolutely critical belief that Christ rose from the dead in the body.
The companion belief – that we ourselves are destined to share in “the resurrection of the body and life everlasting,” as the Creed says – has been affirmed in different ways even by Marxist thinkers and transhumanists, Fr Schall notes:
The truth the transhumanists have grasped is that we do wish to live forever as the unique persons we are. The truth that the Marxist philosophers grasp is that, even in our sins, we are not complete as human beings without the unity of body and soul.
Even so, the resurrection is a challenging doctrine and has always been so. In a beautiful reflection on the gospel account of “doubting Thomas”, Presbyterian Pastor Campbell Markham points out that this is not, in the end, about a lack of evidence:
There is nothing illogical about believing in the resurrected Jesus. There is nothing unscientific about believing this—if God is there, then of course he can raise his Son to life! The problem is not evidential: there is abundant reliable eyewitness evidence, and colossal circumstantial evidence, for the resurrection of Jesus.
The problem is that we don’t want to believe.
I suppose the take-home message for Christians is that, if we really want more people to believe, we have to show them that it makes us better, happier, more attractive people. Witnesses to the faith that is in us. If the sceptics can believe in us, they could believe in a whole lot more.
The MercatorNet team are taking a break, starting Thursday, and we’ll be back on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a Happy Easter to all!
Carolyn Moynihan
Deputy Editor,
MERCATORNET
| Unbelieving the resurrection By Campbell Markham Doubting Thomas is a lesson for us all. Read the full article |  |
| Body and soul: the resurrection of Christ answers our desire to live forever By James Schall SJ Transhumanists and Marxists affirm a central Christian belief in their own ways. Read the full article |  |
| Why we should play with our kids By Tamara El-Rahi Playing benefits both parent and child. Read the full article |  |
| How did ‘populism’ become such a dirty word? By Denyse O'Leary A left-wing journalist offers some thoughts. Read the full article |  |
| Why can’t America just take out Assad? By David Alpher Nature abhors a vacuum, and outsde solutions never work. Read the full article |  |
| The Case for Christ By Carolyn Moynihan The investigation that converted Lee Strobel, atheist journalist, comes to the big screen. Read the full article |  |
| How one Nairobi woman saves young mothers from the pressure to abort By Mathew Otieno Domitila Ayot is a humble heroine of the slums. Read the full article |  |
| Farewell John Clarke: in an absurd world, we have never needed you more By Robert Phiddian Australia loses its number one satirist. Read the full article |
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Why we should play with our kids
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