The other night Barry and I were sitting out in our backyard as the girls played together nearby. They had finally hit their rhythm where it’s a fine balance of Maggie bossing and Audrey being a bit goofy/wild. They were having a ball, and giving us adults a few minutes to talk without interruption, a miracle. While we watched them Barry turned to me and says, “I love this, I think they’re doing exactly what kids should be doing.”
It as so true, and it’s a fight I have internally often, asking the question about providing things to ‘do’ for my kids/playing with them/entertaining them/allowing any screen time. And while watching them play, it looked like they weren’t really doing anything, just playing and interacting with each other, but they were doing something. With their bossing and giggling, they were skill building, relationship building, and hopefully building bricks that will lay a strong foundation to carry them through life.
We’ve got lots of activities (painting, chalk, bikes, blah, blah, blah), and we’re attempting to explore the PNW this year in a more aggressive way than we have in the past few summers, but really the girls most like to play together with objects that you can’t necessarily find in a toy store. We aren’t doing much this summer, lots of trips to A-Town, lots of play time in our backyard, letting our kids do what kids should do….play.
P.S. Head over to I Carry Your Heart for a new batch of images!!
