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Today, my friend Ana Canhoto invited me to a presentation on Social Media and the Return on Influence by Mark Schaefer. It was very interesting and informative. Mark proposes a model of 6 layers of customer engagement, which peel away like an onion.
Now, I don’t intend to write a post about customer engagement, marketing or social media. Instead his presentation got me think of the immediate implications in my life and my current full-time job as a mum: My customers are my children.
One of Mark’s layers is the Game Layer. Statistics show that even as adults we are drawn to games. Some games , like World of Warcraft, draw people in so much that they spend 6 hours a day playing. Farmville has 3 times as much revenue as Facebook, with the ability to change people’s routines to adapt to the pretend farms’ needs. Astonishing!
All this got me thinking: I have written about my numerous frustrations in getting the Littlins to do things- eat, get dressed, tidy up, etc.- in a timely manner. Would approaching everything as a game make it easier? How can these everyday tasks be turned into a game? Or is it just me, who’s been missing this trick and everyone else already approaches parenting as a game with the Littlins?
It is all too easy to turn the daily tasks into a competition, but that creates sibling rivalry, doesn’t it? And that in the long term is not good.
Here are some thoughts on what I I came up with when thinking it briefly through on how to turn life and parenting into a game for everyone:
– Creative reward charts (not just your x by x grid on which stickers are placed, or jars filled with marbles, etc.)
– More involvement of the Littlins in chores
– Technology, such as phone apps
– Introducing more role-play, more storytelling
What do you think? Do you approach parenting as a game with the Littlins?
Finally, if we do approach the everyday as a full-time play session, do children still learn essentials like taking responsibility, timeliness?
My objective would be to make parenting a smoother process and not load more work on my own shoulders as a parent, but to achieve the same better results.
I would love to hear your opinions! Please feel free to link to your relevant posts.
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How about using nursery rhymes as your characters for imaginative play? For example the Queen of Hearts (made some tarts) for cooking/eating
Old Mother Hubbard for putting shopping away
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly (for eating)
and so on.
When walking to school why not get the children to tell stories about what they see on the way a line each at the time?
Great suggestions! Thx! 🙂
Will need to brush up on nursery rhymes (which is a bit more difficult in the different languages).
What a coincidence as I was just chatting about this with some of my friends tonight Gill Connell from http://www.movingsmart.co.nz/ and Lynne Kenney from http://www.lynnekenney.com/ about making life with kids more fun, more playful, more relaxed and more rewarding. We are building memories one day at a time for our children so why not make them happy ones ?
I think it all starts with us as parents first – if we are calm, relaxed, playful and confident then our kids pick up that mood and that vibe from us.
I used to use all sorts of games to make tidying up the toys more fun from using an egg timer to playing music and doing it before the song stopped, to looking for Postman Pat spagetti in the supermarket aisles to make shopping more fun. It’s about having that playful, positive mindset first and giving yourself more time without rushing everything
Great post !
Thanks for the reminder !
Sue
Thanks Sue for the comment and the pointers!
LOL – I don’t think Mark imagined that his talk would be applied to parenting…
What about getting pieces for a game (say Lego bricks, or dice, or parts of a tea set) for completing certain tasks (get ready by herself, brushing teeth, whatever, …). When they collect all the pieces, they get the reward of actually playing with that game (i.e., Lego set, board game, or tea party)?
Mark gave a vision of the future, we might as well start preparing the kids for it right now, no? 😉
I love playing games with my kids especially when i see they are enjoying it.. It is fun and great bonding with them..
Great post, I try to make parenting into a game especially when it comes to chores and getting ready, but sometimes it’s hard after a long day at work. Good tips here though. x
Thank Susan! As you say it’s a difficult balancing act. Wish we could just shed our grumpy adult selves and be these genius parents who parent without their children even realising it.