How often do you play with the kids?

How often do you play with your children? There’s a question! Could you put an amount on time on it? I am talking actually play, enjoy some good old fashion play time.

I was recently sent a blog post to read from Galt Toys about their Play Amnesia campaign, which is what trigged my thought process, and this post. I found it to be a genuinely interesting read and one which I think most parents would find something to identify with.

Lovely infographic

Research has found that “the average busy parents are spending just 56 minutes a day playing one to one with their children” and “More than one quarter of mums and dads polled spend just 30 minutes or less on quality playtime with toys like puzzles, jigsaws or craft sets”. 

What got me the most though was that research also found that parents lacked confidence in play time. Apparently, “the majority (76%) often feeling self conscious and inadequate.  Nearly half of parents (49%) felt envious or inadequate in comparison to other parents”. 

Goodness we give ourselves a hard time!

But I can understand it. I have met so many amazing parents through blogging who do fantastic, creative things with their little ones that I admit to often feel really guilty for not doing the same. I tweeted recently asking for advice on what do to on a rainy Saturday with a 27 month old. The suggestions that came back were great, but did make me realise that I don’t do enough with B. I often take him to the farm or to feed the ducks but crafts are not my thing! I guess I should take a second to remember it is not about me. It is about him.

The majority of the quality time I spend with B is at the weekend. The working week is exactly that for me, work, so my time with him on a weekday is indeed limited. However, I know that he plays non-stop at nursery so that makes me happy.

Last week we were struck down with chicken pox and then with a horrible cough and cold. As B wasn’t allowed to go to nursery and therefore, I was unable to go to work, I seized the opportunity to engage some quality play time! I also wanted to make an effort to use technology less. Baby B enjoys watching TV or playing on the iPad as much as the next person but it could be argued doesn’t really count as play time.

The Galt research, not surprisingly, found that technology is impacting on play. So much so that “65% of mums and dads felt that demands from work, emails, social media and texts on a daily basis was resulting in less child-time”.

So despite my mind often wondering at times, thinking about work and sending a quick tweet or email we had a ball. This is what we got up to….

Outdoors…..ponds, lakes, chickens and tunnels, rides, trains & acorns,

and indoors…den building, puzzles and colouring in.

There has a be a balance. You can’t feel guilty about not ‘playing with your child enough’, especially if you work. We have enough guilty feelings without adding this to the list but I have decided that I will take more time to engage with him in different activities. Who knows, I may even discover my inner craft goddess!

This week we will be tackling finger painting and creating something from leaves (I have no idea what yet but I have a load of browning leaves on the kitchen table just screaming to be turned into something!)

Oh and yes, we did do a bit of this…

It’s down time! 😉

What are your top playtime tips? Fav games or crafts? I would love to hear them.

You can read more about the Galt Toys research and campaign on their blog and see Galt spokesperson, Dr Miriam Stoppard, new range of toys – Galt Toys – Play Amnesia

Related posts:

The G Word ‘The Pricelessness’ of children. Kids don’t come cheap! A day in the life of the boys