Is there an art to roughhousing?

There's a new book out called The Art of Roughhousing, in which two fathers (one an MD and the other a PhD) offer advice and diagrams on how to roughhouse the right way.   They believe that it's "crucial to kids' self esteem and physical development that parents unplug the family, loosen up and let fly."  Today's obsession with safety and technology, they argue, has changed the way we play.  And not for the better. 

Let me start off here by saying I AGREE.  Who wouldn't?  I don't like the idea that today's kids no longer roam free and explore on their own any more than the next mother. And there's nothing better than the bond (and the giggles) that comes from them messing around with their father on the kitchen floor. 

But as I said in this Associated Press article, as much as I  WANT my children to enjoy the benefits of roughhousing (a close physical connection to us as parents, a sense of their own physical power and free play) there's a lot at stake when the roughhousing starts.

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March Moms Group Redux

Updated on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 by Audrey Brashich

Updated on Thursday, April 7, 2011 by Audrey Brashich

Updated on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by Audrey Brashich

The boy enjoying ski school. Made possible--both lovingly and grudgingly--by me. The topic for the most recent meeting of my Moms Group was Time:  Who has it?  Do we have enough?  How do we get it (shuttle the kids off to the grandparents?  Come up with enough cash for a sitter?)?  And what would we--as mothers--do if we had more of it?

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