Contradictory title right?
Well, yeah kinda. But let me explain.
The other day large boy spent an hour chatting with his best mate on my phone and multitasking playing together on Roblox on the tablet. This left small boy and I at a loose end.
What should we do together?
Spurned were ideas of reading, starting his “all about me” for his new teacher, jigsaws, board games and playing Switch (well that was me who said no to that one). Instead we went up to the playroom after I asked what he’d been playing lately with his brother – teddies and cars apparently.
Small boy bemoaned that we couldn’t carry on that game because “you don’t know how to play cars mummy!”
Well I wasn’t going to stand for that. We had great fun shooting cars down his track, organizing the ones that didn’t fit, classifying the fastest and furthest, rescuing the crashes and gathering more cars to try out. All this interspersed with cuddles and chats about what was going on, we laughed at crashes and moaned at the cars that dug into the carpet and didn’t go anywhere. After 45 minutes I asked “is mum any good at playing cars then?”
His response: “you’re ok, not bad but not as good as large boy”.
It was really lovely to connect with small boy on his own for an hour. No phone to distract me, no big brother to occupy him.
I always feel that we don’t get enough one to one time, in any combination in our family but small boy comes off missing out the most. Large boy has Cubs and rugby that himself and I take him to. Sometime next year small boy will have Beavers and he’s wanting to start rugby too, so he’ll get one parent’s dedicated attention when (if) the under 9s play away.
We really played together, I felt like a child again unbothered by any of my usual daily concerns. Phone down, screen out of the way, pure mum and small boy time.
I should regress more often really. Hitting pause on the busyness of daily life and work felt so good.
Smelly Socks and Garden Peas 
Taking an hour a few days a week to go see my nephew and play cars with him really centers me in a way he will never realize. Great post!
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Glad your inner child is close by
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This is a good reminder. I need to take some off days soon too.
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Sounds lovely. Both mine are a bit old for play now, but sometimes me and my youngest cuddle up and read together and it’s bliss!
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What a lovely way to spend an hour! I spent sometime today with grandbabies and left other things undone. Best way to spend my day.
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Oh even better! My mum and dad love getting in on the boys’ games too.
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That sounds like such a fun playtime! One of the beauties of lockdown is all the quality time and special moments we get together that we wouldn’t have gotten the chance to otherwise 🙂
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It was a really fun afternoon.
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Sounds like so much fun! Connecting with your littles is the best! I love hitting pause on the craziness of everyday life once in a while. Thank you for sharing!
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Sounds lovely smell. Sometimes it’s hard to realise how much time we actually don’t spend with our kids even though we are in the same room and talking to them, but not there if you get my meaning.
Some great fun to be had just letting yourself go and playing with them. My eldest daughter was shocked that I could do pig tail plaits in her our generation dolls hair 😂.
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Ace skills! Not sure I could plait someone else’s hair.
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😂 Should have seen one of the first ponytail plaits I did in mouses hair 😂 have you ever seen an erect ponytail plait 😂😂
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🤣 when my hair was long I could French plait it all the way from behind the hairline to the neck and down my back with my eyes closed. Couldn’t do it ok someone else tho
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I remember playing with cars and shooting them down a track. Good times. I glad you had fun
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This is a great reminder to stop worrying about all of the things we “need” to do in a day and just play with our kids.
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And its loads of fun
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Playing with kids is so important. I do forget to do that. I am still learning.
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I think it is important to continue with the simple things and traditional games. I play the missing game with the kids a lot. Where you get a tray with items, they memorise, you remove one and they guess which one. Or hiding an item in the room. It’s simple and fun x
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The boys love the hiding game too! Treasure hunts in the garden as well. Such simple fun.
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So true! We all need to play sometimes and the littles enjoy that time too!
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It is so good to let go and just muck about
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Thanks for sharing, it’s so important to spend time away from the tech and play old games 🙂
Nic | Nic’s Adventures & Bakes
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I love that we play the same games that I played as a child. Last Xmas large boy’s big asks were a book, a blanket, and a drum. I bet my grandfather had the same list when he was 8.
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