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To Swing With Clouds
Learning to Truly Enjoy Playing with Our Children
By Stephanie Elliot
ould love to. But there's a job to do – a non-stop job – and somebody's got to do it.
Before you know it, it's time to start dinner, do some laundry and straighten up. If it's a nice afternoon, we'll take a walk, draw with sidewalk chalk, blow bubbles or I'll push the kids on the swings. I guess none of this can be considered "playing" though, because, according to AJ, I do not play with them.
Being Mom is a serious job, but sometimes I guess I take it too seriously. With most jobs (aside from camp counselors or clowns), you don't play while you're on the clock. I realized, after my discussion with AJ, that I needed to revamp my job description and add time for play.
So today at gymnastics, instead of watching from the sidelines, I walked the balance beam with my kids and rolled on the floor with them. At the park, I played Hide-and-Seek and slid down the slide. I raced with them across the field, and I marveled at the ladybug they discovered. I felt what they feel every day – that pure joy of being able to play with no stress to preoccupy their little minds.
I pushed my worries out of my head, and I concentrated on things that mattered. I wondered, if I went high enough on the swing, would the tips of my toes actually touch the clouds (the ones that looked like ice cream cones, dinosaurs and fish)? I hoped so.
No one is ever going to fire me from my job. This is a self-created position, and I ma
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