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Playtime
My husband passed this intriguing article about parents playing with their children to me. For my part, I'm getting a bit weary of hearing recommendations about how much time toddlers should spend playing or how much and what kind of direct interaction one needs to have with one's infants or babies or preschoolers or what have you. I find I don't really handle behaving according to protocols very well. I keep wanting to buck them or feeling horrible if I can't really live up to the suggested standards because I have work and dueling child needs and interests that I really feel compelled to entertain.
So take comfort all of you who keep up your email correspondence while watching a Lego tower evolve and devolve with one eye, who let the stuffed animals participate in the tea party while mostly reading a magazine. You aren't being neglectful and your child won't wind up understimulated and silly.
But I have to admit I am thoroughly sick of trying to seek validation by looking to what other cultures (especially ones that are deemed more "natural" and "real" by virtue of their being in undeveloped countries). Sure in some cultures babies are carried everywhere ("worn" in the words of the annoying Ergo packaging), but that doesn't mean that not wearing a kid makes you inauthentic or inattentive. But mine isn't always the popular view. I'm of the "who cares if you have an epidural or not" school, whereas lots of people I know think that anesthesia during childbirth will create some lifelong bonding problems with the child. I think bonding problems are not the fault of the painkillers.
But I digress. The article lets you off the hook for the next few sandbox tea parties, and that can't be all bad.
posted by Elise at 11:00 AM
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