Playing with your toddler

bmtaylor6 · Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:56 pm Post subject: Playing with your toddler

Quote:

Confession:
"I don't know how to play with my toddlers and I find it incredibly boring when I try. I provide all of their needs: healthy food, clean clothes, baths, etc. and read to them, but beyond that I pretty much leave them to entertain themselves. That's how I was raised and I really don't know any other way to parent. Is that wrong?"
Comments (2):

well my question to is how did you turn out? If you feel like you are just fine well then go ahead but I think kids need that interaction from parents to make them feel validated. do you feel validated by your parents?

My comment:

Quote:

Try reading and jumping and playing peekaboo. =O I think parental interaction is also necessary. My toddler and I do all kinds of things, whether she knows how to or not. We draw, we read, we play kid games on the computer, we play shooting games on the XBOX, we build a tower out of building blocks or legos, we even match shapes all the time. Sometimes we will just do nothing, and others she will play by herself and I will clean or do something different. It just takes some creativity!

I feel it is very wrong to let your toddler just run around and not have any sort of activity other than what's needed. I doubt I would feel half as close to my daughter if we didn't do stupid things together or play or read or do anything. And it makes her learn more. There are those days in which we don't do much together, but she still has that interaction and knowledge and feeling. I feel it is partly my job to pass on any knowledge worth knowing, and quite frankly, mother goose does have some nursery rhymes that are in depth! So does Dr. Suess! Man, maybe I'm just one of those people who spend as much time as I can teaching my child "what is right" and about the world.

Last night, my hubby and I watched the movie Letters to Iwo Jima. I enjoyed it, but the end made me cry a bit. That one soldier's letter was touching. It included probably the best advice one can have, and its something a person already knows, but never thinks about. Well, I feel it should be something everyone knows, at least subconsciously. The soldier's mom said, "Do what is right because it is right." It made me think about the choices I've made and how I feel about them, especially when it came to helping others.

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MaeganXeno · Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:46 pm Post subject:

Jocelynn is older, and does not normally want to play with me...but will come up & ask me to play once in a while. And Anicah plays with Jocelynn...When Jocelynn was small, I would do activities with her...mostly coloring, arts & crafts, and tea-party games. We did the reading, and little hand games (pat-a-cake, peek-a-boo/etc)...and sometimes she would just hand me toys and tell me to sit there, lol.

Its harder to do it with both of them...cuz one may be too old for it...the other too young...and if it's messy, it's hard to help the two of them at once if they need something. I still find things for us to do, though.

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Vbabe1226 · Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 5:10 pm Post subject:

we do stuff together..sometimes we watch movies..or color or do crafts..but most of the time we both do our own thing and i dont think there is anything wrong with that at all. i read that children need at least 20 minutes of your time a day..well i give her more than that so i think im ok.

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Admin · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 9:10 am Post subject:

Vbabe1226 wrote:

we do stuff together..sometimes we watch movies..or color or do crafts..but most of the time we both do our own thing and i dont think there is anything wrong with that at all. i read that children need at least 20 minutes of your time a day..well i give her more than that so i think im ok.

Same here. I did a lot with my first, but now that I have two, there is just too much shit to do. But even with my first I wasn't doing stuff with him all the time, which probably translated to him never having any issues with other people providing care for him. It's good for kids to have you attention, but too much and you are probably asking for attachment issues.

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Vbabe1226 · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:58 pm Post subject:

not to mention you get bored.

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