Does being playful and silly come naturally to you?
It didn’t to me. Not at first. I’m getting better at it now though.
My children are all very active and full of energy. Their extreme enthusiasm made me more serious, as I felt the need to maintain balance in the family to prevent things from descending into chaos.
But a while ago, we suffered a loss in our family, and it truly reminded me how short life is. And the way “normal” life got turned upside down by the COVID-19 situation further drove this home.
I have made it my personal goal to enjoy life as much as possible and to cut loose with my kids as best as I can.
We do have an important job in shaping our children, but I want to have fun while doing it.
I made a list to help me transition from that serious mama to a more silly, playful mama. And over time, I kept adding to that list. Today, I added a few last ones to round it up to the nice “100” number and I’m sharing it with you.
I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me!
No Matter What Age Your Kids Are…
This first section of ideas should work no matter what age your kids are –
- Have water fights. You can do this in the bathroom during your daily routine or go all out with water guns and drench each other on the front lawn.
- Let your child give you a makeover. They can do your hair, make up, and even paint your nails.
- Jump in leaves together.
- Have a dance off between you and your children – no special occasion necessary.
- Alternately, dance your difficult emotions away. Whenever you or your child is angry or upset, grab them and start dancing.
- See who can make the loudest noises with their armpits. Or fake farts. Or burps. A little gross, but believe me, almost every child loves this!
- Jump on the trampoline together.
- Cook/bake together and don’t worry about the mess. That’s half the fun!
- When done, sing the cleanup song in a whacky tone (if you have little ones) or pop in a favorite CD (with bigger kids) and have fun cleaning up the mess together.
- Play in the rain together. [Read more…]