As part of PhD in Parenting Carnival of Play, this post is dedicated to kids and play!
In this house, right now, play means playing sports. We play a lot of other games – hide and seek, chase, board games like memory etc. but the all time favourite with the Boy currently are sports. Soccer, hockey (on the carpet of the play room), basketball (we have a Little Tikes basketball net in the play room) and, most important in his world – Baseball.
You would think in Canada we’d be all about hockey (we like it, my husband is especially into OHL) but at the Man’s influence, it’s all baseball. And so, we play – everyday. We have a little bat and those ball pit balls in the basement and we pitch, the Boy hits. The Boy pitches, we hit. He now says phrases like “strike”, ‘your out’ and ‘high heat’ for the special pitches. He wants to always hit a ‘slam’ (grand slam) and runs the bases – well, runs after he hits anyway.
Quite frankly, it’s hilarious. Sweet that the love my husband has for the game has transferred to the Boy. He does get a little obsessed with how much he wants to play, or wants to watch baseball highlights on the computer (it’ll be easier when the games are on TV, although then that’s all they’ll watch!).
What’s most important to us is that his youthful glow when he sees a ballpark or player hit a homerun lasts with him, and that when he plays we focus on how fun it is, not how good he is or how many times he hits the ball (although, he is pretty good! ha! There’s a mommy brag…)
Soon, we’ll be taking him to his first big league game to see the Toronto Blue Jays. I think he’ll be so excited he might burst. Is there anything more special than seeing our children so excited and blissfully happy by such fun, innocent things?
Are your kids into sports? Do you watch it on TV like we do? The Boy is too young for organized sports, but we do plan to put him in them when he’s old enough. Do you?
”….for it’s one, two, three strikes your out at the old ballgame!”
