Playful Parenting - by Lawrence Cohen | Derek Sivers

Playful Parenting helps with the toughest aspects of parenting: tantruming toddlers, biting preschoolers, anxious third-graders, out-of-control preteens. Playfulness resolves our battles over getting dressed and ready in the morning, soothes our frazzled nerves at the end of a long day, and restores family harmony. Playful Parenting offers a hand e

Playful parenting is so much more than just getting down on the floor and ‘playing’; it’s an approach to everyday interactions with children which can help with the hardest parts of parenting — arguments, big emotions, anxiety — and bring more joy into every part of our life. It can help us to reconsider what it means to be a parent, and allow us t

Just as Playful Parenting provides the key for helping children unlock the tower of isolation, engaging playfully with children also helps them build the confidence it takes to step out of the tower of powerlessness.

While adult therapy tends to cast parents as the villains, I started to see what a powerful positive force they can be in their children's lives. And the single most important skill parents could acquire, it seemed to me, was playing. Fortunately, unlike many personality changes we might like to make, better playing skills can be learned pretty eas

In my experience, if you can muster up a little playfulness, it actually takes less energy than having to deal with all the whining and resistance you get from a direct order. It also sets a nice tone.