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The One Where I Admit to Eavesdropping on My Kids…

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All my girls need is each other and a handful of trustworthy toys. The kind I know won’t fall apart when they inevitably sit on them or smash them together. For us many of those toys, the ones I trust my kids with and the ones they spend entire days playing with, are Mattel brands like Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, and Thomas & Friends. Which is why when Mattel approached me and asked if I’d be interested in becoming a Mattel Play Advocate I was quick to say yes.

I’ve mentioned before how the best part of being a stay at home mom is being here for my kids, getting to spend time with them and getting down on the floor and playing with them. However, that’s not an entirely accurate statement because I find as they get older I actually find my favourite thing is sometimes not the time spent playing with them, but the time spent watching them play, or listening in from the other room. The things that the two of them come up with on their own and the way that they interact is entertaining, amusing and frequently downright surprising. They come up with things that I would never in a bazillion years dream up. Their imaginations are limitless, or perhaps I should say limited only by what they can manage to agree upon.
So is this eavesdropping thing just me? Tell me the truth guys, do you ever just listen in when your kids are playing?
I firmly believe that my kids learn through play. That at ages 7 and 5, play is still the most important aspect of their lives. Soon enough I know there will be this shift away from imaginative play. Soon enough I’m sure my big kid will be more worried about hanging out with her peers from school than spending her every spare minute with her little sister. Soon enough homework will take over more of her after school hours. So for right now I am going to relish every minute they spend playing together, as I listen from the kitchen and try not to giggle too loudly when they come up with ludicrous things for their Hot Wheels cars to do, make up their own rules to all the board games, make plans to marry each other (yes I’ve told them this isn’t legally feasible, they don’t care), create elaborate Thomas track layouts that run from one end of the house to the other, and design paper houses for their Fisher-Price Little People to camp out in.

 

The exciting news for you folks is this mean I’m be talking about various Mattel toys every month, and I’ll be teaming up with them to offer some very cool giveaways. In the meantime I’d love to know, what are your favourite Mattel brands or toys? Which ones do you remember from your childhood? Which ones do your kids play with?

Disclosure: I am a Play Advocate. As part of my affiliation with this group I receive special access to Mattel events and products. As always my words and opinions are my own.

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