Many of us are guilty of trying to convince our kids to do mundane things by promising them that they're really fun—even when they're not. Math is fun! Fitness is fun! Safety is fun! We know that these things aren't really fun so why do we insist on telling our kids that they are? Well, in a hilarious essay, Dashka Slater tells us that this isn't the only thing driving her crazy these days.
She finds it equally disturbing and possibly even more sinister that there is a new trend: telling parents that things children genuinely find fun are, in fact, good for them. What has the world come to that parents have to be told that having fun is actually Good For Children? Slater tells of visiting her local science museum and seeing a sign next to the puppet assuring parents that, however pointless it may seem, playing with puppets will actually make their children smarter.
Like Slater, I worry for the parents who need to be told that pretending to be a lion is a worthwhile activity for a 4-year-old, but apparently they exist in sufficient numbers to warrant their own sign. Slater's dream is to reunite the word "fun" with its original meaning: something children do for their own pleasure while their parents sit around on park benches and complain about having to nag them all the time.
I'm with her! Anyone else on board?
