Imagination grows up

Written by Jen Wednesday, 13 August 2008 00:00

Blog

Two of my children were awake before 10:00 a.m., so we had the rare chance to leisurely enjoy Dad's signature egg breakfast and chat about wacky local news clips, the Sunday funnies--and hair. My son's morning hairstyle, to be specific. Blessed with a number of cowlicks, he looks best with a short cut but isn't eager to head to the barber anytime soon. "It's good," he quips, when I mention his need for a trim. "You look like a rooster," I respond. And now we get a glimpse of what I love about conversations with my kids.

"I call it a shelf," he says, running his hand over the mat of hair forming a visor over his forehead. "More like a slide," says my daughter. "No, it's a water slide." And off we go!

Mealtimes are often a sparring match between my sons as they joke about teachers and video games and parents who are truly baffled about their world. Trying to control what can easily become a free-for-all has been an issue at the table in our house for years. The young folks often prefer talking with each other to continuing a conversation with adults.

But this is what we wanted, I recall. "Play together. Use your imagination," was my rainy day response to requests for play dates and outdoor adventure. They used to spend hours creating blanket forts and playing card houses, littering the floors with Lego villages, cowboy and Indian camps and train tracks.

Now that my children are older, I'm still encouraging them to use their minds and put away the technology. Write something, read something, create something. By summer's end I hope their horizons have been broadened well beyond the cell phone and XBox. On my own summer reading list is Susan Linn's The Case for Make Believe. Hoping it'll give me some insight and wisdom, and perhaps spur my own often lagging creativity.

Your input on reading, writing--and haircuts--is welcome.