On Making An Effort To Be Childlike – With A Little Help From Pokey

This past weekend my husband and I took our youngest daughter to our church’s “family faith formation” program.  Our other two children have aged out of this particular program, but we took something away from this month’s program that will benefit all of us.  The guest speaker at this month’s program was Jason Kotecki of www.kimandjason.com.  His message to us parents was to fight “adultitis” and to find ways to be more playful and childlike with our children.  (He also championed another message dear to my heart – families eating dinner together, but that’s another story, and another blog.)

Each family received a little toy Pokey (of Gumby and Pokey fame) and were encouraged to use it in a hiding game.  So far Pokey has been hidden and found in a fan, a basket of ponytail holders, and the microwave.  As I write this, he is hidden somewhere else unbeknownst to all of us but the hider.  He’s always somewhere unexpected and brings a smile of surprise to the one who finds him.  So far we’ve been having fun with him.  And I think that was one of Jason’s points – we should be having fun with our children.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the responsibilities, worries, and downright drudgery that come with parenting.  Sometimes we need an external reminder to stop, pay attention to, and appreciate the joys that we imagined children would bring to our lives before we had them.  So whether it’s playing peek-a-boo with your baby, appreciating the wonders of sand with your toddler, pretending restaurant with your preschooler, or hiding pokey with your older kids, take a moment to play and have some fun with your kids.

We’ll be trying to make some more time for fun here, and Pokey will remind us.  Do you have any visual reminders that help you remember to have fun?  How do you make fun in your family?