A Dramatic Acting Moment
Yes, both will hate me for this one. Soon.
Playing is not my strong suit.
While I enjoy making up stories, reading, and playing board games with our girls (as long as said board game is not Candyland with a four-year old cheater girl*), I often avoid opportunities to play, opting instead to focus on myriad important household tasks (e.g. Tweeting paying bills, checking my blog stats making dinner, reading Yeah Write submissions).
*Name withheld to protect the not-so-innocent.
When we do play together, life is good. Genuine connection and deafening screams ensue.
Here are the top five ways our family plays together:
1. Fighting
Don’t ask me to play with Barbies or Polly Pockets. I get itchy and scratchy. Playing anything where my girls tell me exactly what to do or say doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t take direction well, perhaps accounting for my failed acting career!
However, give me a movie scene or a familiar story to act out, and I’m all in. Our best moments together involve me. And a fight scene.
Occasionally I overestimate my agility … While reenacting the climatic sword fight between Peter Pan and Captain Hook (guess who I played?), I dramatically leaped off the couch yelling “You’ll never catch me, Peter Pan! Walk the plank!” and promptly fell on my ass, hurting my pride ass.
(To those who suggest Captain Hook is perhaps not as nimble as he once was and should consider retiring his straddle jumps, I say, “suck it.”)
As you can imagine, things in our family are smoother and calmer after we “act out.”
2. Arguing
In addition to complaining about whose turn it is to leap dramatically off the couch, we tend to argue over who gets the best parts in the plays we recreate.
I ask you: Why do I always have to be the Evil Stepmother, Evil Witch, Evil Sorcerer, Evil Queen, Evil Mermaid, Evil etc. Why? Why? It’s not fair.
And tell me, why can I never portray the ubiquitous dead mom in the Disney story and go catch up on emails? Right?
3. Cheating
Mike (my hubby) and Rhys (our 4 yo) have been playing Candyland together for the past several nights before bed. Rhys cheats. Dramatically. She fixes the deck to ensure she gets all the good picture cards (you know you know them – Princess Frostine, Lolly, Grandma Nut, Mr. Mint) and plays to win.
The good news: she’s upfront about her cheating and makes no apologies for it. Also, because of her duplicity, the games are over quickly. A win for all!
Last night I offered to play Candyland with her while Mike was at a work event.
Rhys: “Mom, I want you to play Candyland, but you should know, I’m gonna cheat.”
Me: “Good to know. Thanks for being honest about that, Rhys. I’m probably gonna cheat too.” (A model of sportsmanship, I am.)
4. Sweating
When the tension between us is running high, occasionally instead of yelling or picking a fight, I’ll remember to call for a rousing game of Tag. The girls and I enjoy chasing each other down the long hallway connecting our kitchen and family room.
I used to run slower so the girls could occasionally catch me. Now, I sweat trying to keep away from them. (Perhaps Mike and I can try this ourselves when the girls are away… spice things up a little.)
5. Blowing Off Steam
We have several activities we use to express frustration in our family. My favorite involves this squishy ball.
This Squishy Ball saves my sanity on occasion.
When the girls get home from school, occasionally they’re a pain in the ass handful, eager to release all the emotions they worked hard to contain throughout their school day. At me. Or each other. (Of course, I never have feelings to release when the girls get home from school. It’s all them. Really.)
Nothing is more satisfying or fun for me than whipping a squishy ball at my daughters and dodging their attempts to hit me with it.
I’m not vying for any parenting awards on this one (and I’d appreciate keeping Family Services in the dark), but nothing works better to bring on the giggles and relieve any anxiety we have about reconnecting.
And, yes, if you’ve been following along, it’s even more satisfying than picking my cuticles.
How do you play together as a family? Does it involve hurling balls at each other? Does playing come easily or do you resist it like I do?
Linking up with Shell‘s Pour Your Heart Out!
Great post. I suck at playing too. I hate it. I don’t really know what to do with my hands. I should try some straddle jumps, but my ass is pretty fragile. I love this post and the tips are within my reach. you’re not evil to me!!
Thanks, love. I’ll write the “how to avoid playing with your kids while looking like you are playing” post next – I have more expertise there! Take my word, stay away from straddle jumps. I need you in one piece!
I love this! I never had great patience for the board games, but I do love building legos with them! Not sure why you are Evil if Rhys is the one cheating
Oooh, you’re a good woman to play Legos. Legos send me over the playing edge!
Sounds like fun! Big time fighting in my house.The boys love tackle!
Mike has cornered the market on tackle in our house! I may need to get in on that game!
It can be rough, but it is fun here. The boys are like puppies in this respect.
You’re on FIRE with the posts these days!!! And… I want to be part of your family! Sounds like fun! =)
Will you be the Evil Stepmother at least some of the time? Great. You’re in!
We love playing sports in this all-boy house… All but Mama, I should say. And the pets. They’re girls, and my six-year-old son says that counts as girls. (It’s doesn’t.) And I get tired of getting beat all the time. Especially when I’m really TRYING to win. Against a kid. A smart and talented kid, I’ll give him that, but he could really let his ol’ Mama win once in a while right?? We play the “hit and run” game too. We call it dodgeball, but it’s the same. We also shoot each other with Nerf guns. It’s good, silly fun.
Oh PS-”Right!!” in response to the dead moms on Disney movies. What’s up with that?? And why do children enjoy them so emmensely then………. Hmmm…..
Every now and then I’ll overhear my girls playing “orphan.” Breaks my heart for a moment until I realize I’m off the hook on that game!
lol You are so funny. I can relate.
Dodgeball! Of course! I used to love playing that as a kid and had forgotten all about it until your comment. Nerf guns would be really satisfying! Target, here I come!
Hilarious! Your home sounds like a blast!!! My girls are really young, but really into dolls and ponies and I enjoy sitting down and playing. They’re too young to be super bossy- although they still try! We definitely love a rough and tumble activity too.
I have a hard time pleaying with my kids, mainly because my son, who’s 4 and also cheats at Candyland – the world will end if he doesn’t get the ice cream cone, wants to play cars, which his 2 year old sister is happy to play with too. Cars insists of hours of sitting on the floor lining them all up in a line and moving them in bunches an inch at a time. Hours of this. I can’t do it.
I try to play cars for a bit and then say “time to play something else”, which he normally doesn’t want to do so I’m excused from playtime to do other things (should be cleaning, laundry, cooking but is usually Facebook, blogging, Pinterest, etc… shhhhhh… don’t tell ok?)
Let’s solve this issue of our kids wanting to play with us right now. Why don’t we set them up on a playdate with each other and you and I can sneak off to check email. Deal?
Done and done! I’ll bring snacks (healthy ones of course!)!
Totally cracking up at this! I need a squishy ball.
Squishy balls should be mandatory for parents – maybe hospitals could give them out after delivery!