Bean bags of fun

I often realise that I have forgotten the simple art of play, the enjoyment of charging around, making a fool of yourself and not giving a care.  I always seem to have something better to do, like housework or emailing and phoning and trying to drum up more business and work, and the poor kids get left to play alone. As I am here most of the time, it is always big bad mummy ruining their fab game of sliding down the banisters, bashing each other senseless in front of the TV with cushions or bouncing off the french doors because they think the sound is funny.

The Big Man is great and in typical male fashion seems to avoid the everyday household jobs thinking that the housework fairy is real. He gets in from work and most nights upon his arrival chaos arrives as well.  But I am not complaining as I cook tea revealing in the sounds of uncontrollable giggling and shrieks eminating from the front room as The Big Man rolls around on the floor with them tickling, play fighting and generally having fun.

I think as a mum it is easy to forget how to have fun and as such I have been trying to find those simple 15 minutes for a game of hide and seek, football in the garden, chase etc more often.

Yesterday it was raining and the boys were going stir crazy.  I told them to go off and find something to do. Their idea of something to do was charging round the house like loons, which was swiftly followed by very loud thudding down the stairs and much hilarity.  My first instinct was to march to the bottom of the stairs and tell them off, but on rounding the corner 2 things happened - I realised they were simply bored and having fun and actually remembered driving my own mum crazy doing a similar thing and number two, Boy 1 and Boy 2 both stopped dead in their tracks and managed to look both crest fallen and guilty at the same time.  So I marched to the top of the stairs, grabbed the over sized bean bag Boy 1 was unsuccessfully trying to hide behind his bag, dumped it on the top step, jumped on and whooped my way down the stairs, which incidently really hurt my arse despite the natural padding it has!

Both boys initially looked at me in amazement and shock and then screamed with laughter and the end of my slide was finished with 'go mum, go mum, you're so cool mum'. I joined in with them for another few rounds, and we timed each other to see who did it the fastest, and then I called a stop to the game and suggested a wet walk instead, plus by poor bum couldn't take any more of a beating!

I just thougt if you can't beat them, join them and in the process we had great fun, I was 'cool' and it was alot more effective than doing my rather good fish wife impression, which has no impact on either of them.