Oct
05
2009
The Hard Work of Play
Doug Wolter shares some good thoughts from Dan Allender’s book, How Children Raise Parents: The Art of Listening to Your Family (pp. 211)
Play requires more time and demands more engagement than does your work. . . . [W]ork is onerous and efficient, whereas play is fun and prodigally wasteful. You can weed a flowerbed far faster alone than you can by involving a child in the process. One can ride a bicycle far faster and farther without the encumbrance of children. A walk will produce more physical exercise when undertaken alone than it can if a child is tagging along asking questions about trees and birds and whether you saw that lizard dart into the rocks. . . . Play is ridiculously inefficient. It splurges and spends, often without any apparent return on its investment.
Allender’s point is that play may be harder than it looks, but it is crucial that we do it with our kids.