A few months ago I was invited to entertain at a Father and Child Ice Cream Social that a local school was giving. The activity that I presented was an interactive foam rubber assemblage of geometric shapes that I call “bots.” They are big, colorful and require anyone who plays to use their imagination. They look complicated but are actually easy and fun to assemble.
It seems that in any venue that I take them, the children really enjoy playing with them and are engrossed in all the parts and variations that they can create.
The “bots” require only imagination.
In every instance I found that fathers are a bit overwhelmed by the activity and wind up crossing their arms. I’ve always wondered why they do that. Are they confused, bored, or just plain uninterested? I remember years ago as a father myself doing the same thing, so I am not an exception.
I witnessed several types of arm crossing, the father that was busy on a business call, the father that was busy socializing with all the other fathers, the father that was there because he had to be and, last but not least, the father that got it.
He got the point of the activity, and that it is a team effort and collaboration between child and parent. We, as fathers, forgot to simply let go and just have fun.
We set goals and time restraints to a project or try to over analyze it.
Many times, as parents, we don’t see that and we separate ourselves from an activity because we don’t want to get in the way of our children enjoying themselves, when in fact it’s just the opposite. Our children want us to join in the fun. It is very important that they see their parents joining in. I was guilty of that myself as a parent and not until I became a grandparent did I realize the importance of that.
So my advice is to be a child again, take this opportunity to enjoy your children’s creative energy and join in. I promise it will help you relax and forget the troubles of the day and you’ll give your children memories they can cherish.