Roughhousing Good For Kids

When it comes to playing with your kids a little roughhousing may be doing a lot more good than you'd think.

Small kids love to attack and pounce all over Dad and Mom. It's a good time had by all. But that good time might also be crucial to how well a child develops over the years. According to Australian researchers this type of rough and tumble play between Dad's and kids helps shape a child's brain. Roughhousing between the ages of 2 and 5 allows them to learn to manage emotions and thinking along with physical action and put these crucial steps all together. Watching films of children playing with their fathers, these researchers noticed that not only were the children having fun and giggling, but they could also see the child concentrating really hard to try and get one over on the Dad. And when they were able to "defeat" the Dad, whether he let them or not, they gained a sense of achievement. On the other hand if they lost they learned a lesson in life about not always being able to win. So either way, whether the child came out on top or not, it worked to teach them something about life. And this type of play also help build a sense of trust between child and parent.

Although the study was done with Dads and children, the same most likely applies to how Moms roughhousing with children can help them as well. The lesson here is that simply spending one-on-one time playing with your kids, without the interference of TV, video games or computers is crucial to helping them develop into strong adults.