Monday, July 20, 2009

Playtime with Daddy

One of the major things I discovered while on maternity leave is that I am not cut out to be a stay-at-home mom. I was a terrible mother and would rarely play with Cameron. I fed her. Sang to her. Changed her diaper. Rocked to her sleep. But I don't have the patience for extended play periods. Good thing DH does! He is awesome at coming up with little games to play with her and Cameron loves it. It's probably why she views me as the "Lunch Lady" and saves all her smiles for Daddy.

How about the rest of you? Have you found that daddies are better at playing with kids? Do you think it's hard wired or are moms just burnt out from other nurturing tasks?

Daddy helps Cameron to tolerate tummy time.
DH demonstrates the effectiveness of Cameron's diet.
See? Cameron gets so excited to play with her Daddy. Her shirt even reads, "Daddy makes me smile."
At least Mommy can pick out cute outfits for Cameron to wear.

7 comments:

Nicole S. said...

My kids seem to get more excited to see Billy than me (maybe because he is away so much) but as far as play is concerned, I'd say we're about equal. Both of us do ok, but could do a lot better, too.

Mommy, Esq. said...

Husband is more inventive than I am but I play weel too. :)

Susan said...

I guess it is the way you look at it....my husband always and still is more active in the "play" area but I sometimes think that is with most men...maybe not?! When my husband came home from work is was to grab his "boys" and do boy things, wrestle, toss in the air, etc... not so much, where's his bottle, let me feed him (even though he would have if I asked). But I had my time too, but different time. We cuddle and look at books or like you say, sing or find new discoveries or go for walks (I loved active stuff), etc... It all works out....our kids need both ;)

confused homemaker said...

It's a lot doing the nonstop caring/nurturing/home stuff as a Mom somedays, especially to a newborn. When kids are older & able to engage more it's really different.

Danielle said...

I have to agree with the last poster that this has a lot to do with the age. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I did NOT enjoy having a newborn.
I used to think the same thing, that playing with Brady was so boring and I didn't play with him all that much (other than dancing) or read to him much until he was able to play back and be interested in what we were doing.
But now playing with Brady is fun! Once they can sit up and actually play it just gets better from there. Of course I still get bored of drawing endless cars, and building endless duplo trains, and duplo bridges, and duplo towers. But, honestly, who can really enjoy the repitition that toddlers love.
This is why I think it's completely unfair that moms have only 3 months (or even less) with baby to decide if they want to go back to work.
How can you make that decision based on a constantly nursing, crying, sleeping, spitting up, basically reactionless human being? You have to leave them when they finally start getting interesting.
K. Stepping off soapbox. I just think we need major maternity leave reform in this country and with the way the economy is going that is NEVER going to happen.

H said...

I was going to agree with a few others- I'm not a big infant person, and I think you will find how much more "fun" you can have when Cameron becomes more interactive.

Natalie said...

oh look at Jeremy, his neck is getting stronger every day!