Making time for play I


By LEITHA COSENTINO


don’t know about you, but after working all week, volunteer- ing, driving the kids to their various events and keeping up with the household chores—I’m tired!


When I finally find a minute to put my feet up, my six year old


inevitably asks me if I want to play Barbies. My eight year old tries to tempt me with a Lego construction challenge. Just between you and me, I’d prefer to watch these activities from the couch (hopefully with a glass of merlot). Thinking back to my own childhood, I don’t recall my busy sin- gle mother whiling away the afternoon playing make-believe on the floor with me. (Of course,I had a whole neighbourhood of children right outside my door playing until the streetlights came on. But that’s another story.) At the risk of sounding like a terrible mother, I will admit that


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my first thought upon being approached to play is usually, "Isn’t that why we buy you all those mounds of toys? So you’ll have ways to occupy yourselves...ahem...I mean increase your cre- ativity and imagination through play? Why do parents need to be involved in the process of play?" It goes without saying that I love my children. It's not that I don't want to spend time with them. It's just that as an adult, play seems like a task that I don't have time or energy for when I consider all the other things I should be doing.


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