Search Results for: blog teaching kids to amuse themselves

Is Structured Play with Your Kids a Good Idea?

Like most parents, I try to spend time each day playing with my child. This daily interaction is as natural as breathing, right? Well maybe not. According to anthropologist David Lancy, the idea of parent-child play is really a modern day occurrence and not necessarily a good thing. Lancy says that this type of interaction happens only in wealthy developed countries. In the journal, American Anthropologist, he stated that in many cultures adults think that it is silly to play with children. However, many Americans feel that playing with their children is the one way to raise smart and well-adjusted … Continue reading →

Dinner Without the Kids and Without the Guilt

I told myself that I deserved to have just one meal that I could enjoy in peace. So when I had the opportunity to eat dinner without Tyler I wasn’t going to alter my plans unless it was an emergency. So when my phone rang as I pulled into the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel in New Orleans to have dinner at the newly remodeled Sassafras Restaurant, I answered said phone with a mixture of panic and annoyance. When I found out that he really didn’t want anything I was relieved. When Tyler passed the phone to his … Continue reading →

Are You Content With The Number of Kids You Have?

In a poll conducted by Ladies Home Journal (November 2006), parents were asked, “If you had to do it over, would you have the same number of kids? Here’s how parents responded: 73% said “yes” 15% said the wished they had more kids 9% responded that they would not have had any kids 2% would have chosen to have fewer kids As the mother of an “only” I’ve often been asked if I planned to or wanted to have more kids. For some reason many people still feel there’s something wrong with having just one child. If I had to … Continue reading →

Giving Our Kids Our Full Attention

My son’s a morning person; I’m not. Does this cause conflict? Most of the time it doesn’t. He wakes up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and I can’t wake up without at least one cup of coffee. This morning was one of those mornings when he seemed especially luminescent and I was especially comatose. Not only did I not want to get up, I didn’t want to wake up. Tyler, on the other hand, was raring to go. First, he wanted to talk about a dream he had. A dream of our return to New Orleans. Then he wanted to talk … Continue reading →

Teaching Kids To Amuse Themselves

“Do you have something for me to do?” This is Tyler’s roundabout way of saying that he’s bored. It’s hard to understand how a child with so much cannot find something to do. One of his biggest problems is he’s so accustomed to doing things with me that at times he’s unable to enjoy time alone. He can amuse himself for hours on end one day and be unable to tear himself away from me the next. Being an only child, he’s used to having me to himself and I think he’s grown comfortable with that. What I am attempting … Continue reading →

Do You Suffer From One-More-Itis

A common complaint moms have is that there is never enough hours in the day. We also complain that we never have enough “me” time. One reason we may not be able to finish everything on our to-do list or snag a little me time is a little disease I like to call one-more-itis. One-more-itis is very common. I suffer from one-more-itis and I bet some of you do too. Or at least know someone who does. The disease compels moms to continuously do one more. It could be one more load of laundry or one more quick phone call … Continue reading →

When You Think You Should Give a Child More of Yourself

I read an article recently that said parents actually spend more time with their children than they did fifty years ago. And yet, we still feel the pressure to give more of ourselves and spend even more “quality” time with our kids. What is a parent to do when the guilts come on and we feel like we should be giving more of ourselves to our child or children? I wrote last month about how I actually enjoy spending time with my kids and there are many times when I want to be with them just because I like them … Continue reading →

Priorities and the Gospel

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A few weeks ago, Miriam wrote a great blog on ‘example families’ – those families in the ward who do a stellar job with family prayer, family scripture study, and so forth. As I read her entry, I started a comment that expressed how impressed I was with such families, and then basically said, “As a mom of four young kids, I often wonder just how these families do it.” I never even submitted that comment because, as I thought about it, I realized that I do, in fact, know how they accomplish this task. It’s all about priorities. These … Continue reading →

Strange Attitudes Towards Children’s Ministry

Children’s ministry can evoke strange attitudes. In some churches the attitude seems to be anyone can undertake children’s ministry. After all, how hard can it be to keep them amused for the time their parents are in church? If they learn something at the same time so much the better. This attitude is likely to stem from the idea within the church leadership that children’s ministry is secondary and less important than teaching adults, and therefore anyone should be able to do it. When my husband took over as superintendent of our Sunday school years ago, he stopped the practice … Continue reading →