The other day, I found myself hurtling down a hill, way too fast, out of control. It was terrifying, exhilarating and hilarious!

‘Do it again, mummy!’ Tyson laughed hysterically at the sight of his dishevelled mum, lying on the grass, regaining my composure, after a pretty spectacular stack.

If you ask me how often I play with my kids, I’d have to hang my head and say: ‘Not often enough.’

The truth is, far too often, they’ll ask me to set up train tracks or race cars with them, and my standard response is: ‘I just need to finish this and then I’ll join in.’ Only to move on to the next task, hoping they won’t notice.

There’s far too much to be done in 24 measly hours a day and playing with my kids has been de-prioritised.

Recently, Tyson was playing on my laptop, pretending to be Daddy, when I heard him call out: ‘I’ve just got to finish this email, then we can play!’ I bet he’s heard that a million times.

Building Bonds

But that day on the hill was different. I admitted defeat on my million-and-one ‘to dos’ and chose to straddle a bike that was waaay too small for me and just be silly with my boys. We had a ball! Pushing the bikes up the hill. Racing them down the hill. Ending up in a giggling heap at the bottom.

I recently read an article about another blogger starting a series called “28 Days of Play“. It encourages parents to get out there and just have fun with their kids.

Lawrence Cohen, psychologist and author of Playful Parenting, says it builds a specific kind of closeness, which fosters a real cooperative bond between parent and child.

Gotta get me some of that!

My ‘new week’s resolution’ is to be more silly, creative and fun with my kids. Who’s with me?

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Originally published at Mum Daily. Photo by Pavel Danilyuk.