the other evening the kids got down after tea and Isaac asked us 'can we all play hide and seek?" and before i could even say anything in reply, Maisie chipped in 'mummy and daddy can't play with us because they have too much to do…'
I just about tripped over my guilty heart…..
Suffice to say we ditched the tidying up and played some hide and seek……
I was thinking about it after and wondering if you can ever just 'explain' to your kids that you love them. What i mean is that does playing hide and seek for 20 minutes actually show them those emotions in a way they can understand and grasp. Im not saying that words are empty and wasted on kids but to my knowledge neither Ben or i have ever said to the kids 'we cant play with you because we have too much to do' They have just heard it in our actions and choices. Because we forget how much kids hear all the things we don't say….
You know, im realistic and if i played with my kids all the time then we would need surf boards to ride the waves of washing…. But It is sometimes too easy to think that kids get what we get….that explaining something to a 6 year old is going to result in the same outcome as explaining it to ourselves.
and that is a useful lesson no?
One that maybe i need to keep reminding myself of i feel.
and a little winteryness….
teamjames