Children’s Play: Reducing Family Stress

playground-664884__340 It has rained for days with little time for the children to play at the park. Today is my babysitting day for my three preschool grandkids! I arrive at my daughter’s home early in the morning. My daughter plans to spend her time completing a tutorial on her new computer. I plan to take the grandkids on their weekly trip to lunch, the park, and on errands. I then ask if I can purchase the 14 month old twins’ first pair of shoes and drive my grandson to preschool after taking him to his doctor’s office for a shot.

All at once, my daughter looks at me and states that she will play hookie from work responsibilities. My grandson will take a day off from preschool. It will become a day of reduced family stress as we plan for our great adventure! The twins take their morning nap and my grandson picks up all of his toys. I clean-up the kitchen and plan for our trip; packing lots of food snacks and emergency supplies.

The Play Outing

We leave the house excited about our great adventure. After visiting the doctor’s office, we stop at our favorite cafe for lunch. The staff knows are family well and laughs as the twins toss their food onto the clean floor. We next travel to the shoe store and learn that they do not have size 3 1/2 E shoes for two sets of feet. The twins are so excited about trying on shoes! My grandson loves the pocket toys that are available for sale at the department store.

We stop at the toy store to buy another deck of Go Fish playing cards. The grandkids have destroyed or lost most of their first card deck. This deck of cards will be kept in my car for our next rainy day play.

We then walk to the park. My grandchildren are so excited to have their mom with them. They show off when swinging, playing in tubes, and while climbing on play structures. My grandson tackles every climbing structure with skill. He excels with mom’s supportive love. The twins are babbling a mile a minute as they swing! One twin is giggling while saying tickle tickle. The other twin is making animal noises as we sing songs.

Lessons for the Day

On our way home, all three kids are noisy and rowdy. They keep each other awake beyond their afternoon nap times. Once home, they are tucked into their beds for naps at 2 p.m. and sleep until after 4 p.m.!

The lessons from this great adventure include:

Stop and play!
Life is too short. Our children will be grow-up in no time.
These trips require energy and added support.

Happy children’s play!

Similar types of toys described in the blog can be purchased from Amazon.

Mary Ann