The great thing about modern parents is the fact that they don’t differentiate between a boy and a girl. Children get the same education, toys, and food choices, which believe it or not is still a dream in many cultures. However, despite the equalising of boys and girls in nearly all possible ways, we still have pre-set notions about certain things that continue to maintain that divide.
For instance, colours like pink are always associated with girls while blue is that for boys. In school, boys are more likely to enrol for soccer, but girls need to pick ballet instead. Parents too do this at home, sometimes unknowingly.
The dad treats his little girl as a princess, whereas the boy gets to rough it up with the old man.
But here’s the fact dear dads, your little princess can play rough too! Roughhousing games such as wrestling allows them to bond with their fathers on a different level.
Roughhousing Games With Girls: Why Dads Should Engage Too
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But here’s the thing, roughhousing isn’t gender-specific and girls can take the beating and learn to give it back too. When they wrestle with their dads, she is getting a physical workout. She’s learning about coordination, balance, technique and strategy.
Moreover, your little girl is learning to defend herself and that’s the most important benefit of all. It’s all fun and games with roughhousing activities but you are subconsciously preparing her on how to defend against a perpetrator.
It’s a learning ground (or rug) after all, which allows her to learn what she is capable of physically and mentally.
5 Benefits Of Roughhousing Games
There are multiple benefits of playing roughhousing games with your kids. Whether it is a boy or a girl, both will develop the same qualities that will be beneficial to their holistic growth.
1. Fitness
Roughhousing is a hyper sport activity by children’s standards and involves a lot of physical movement. Your child is putting all their effort to knock you over, while also working on balance and coordination.
So between the giggles and the laughter, your child needs to be grunting a bit, which is a show of putting the right kind of effort. One day, they will succeed in knocking you over.
2. Enhanced intelligence
The increased physical activity also lights up the neurons in your little one’s brains when you are playing roughhousing games. This growth is active in the hippocampus of the brain, which is responsible for things including logic, learning, and memory.
At the same time, your kid is improving her combat skills as she is using her intelligence to strategise and plot the next move to take you down.
This requires observing your body posture, reading your next move and then deciding how to react to the same. All of these functions will help her perform better out in the real world.
3. Controlling impulse
Kids need to understand the difference between dropping a punch during play and in an actual fight. Now, don’t get us wrong, we don’t want your kid to join a fight club. But the idea is to understand when it is okay to be physically active and when it isn’t.
Your child’s impulsive nature could lead to someone getting hurt on the playground.
Instead, playing games with the old man is a far better way to control the impulse in a safer environment. At the end of the day, no one should get hurt.
4. Bonding
Playing games bring out the best side in all of us and these are the moments your children will cherish later in life.
It’s the time when you laugh at the same things, while the closeness and physical activity bring out the oxytocin hormone, which boosts the feelings of bonding and closeness.
5. Learning to manage risks
Your kid is learning how to safeguard her body and manage risks, whenever she is playing games that involve physical activity.
They’re learning how to handle themselves outside of their comfort zone, especially when a full-grown adult can put them down easily.
5 Different Roughhousing Games You Can Try At Home
Image Source: Pexels
1. Airplane
With their tummies resting on your feet, let them fly up right as you raise your legs. But do hold their hands tight. It creates a mock view that looks like your kid is flying.
2. Sumo wrestler
Stuff up pillows under your t-shirts, take a running start and bump your tummies against each other. May the cutest wrestler win.
3. Favourite boots
Let your kids grab hold on to your legs by wrapping themselves around the calves. With your leg wrapped in a boot, it’s time to take a little walk. Apart from being fun for your kids, it’s also a great workout tip.
4. Sleeping whale
Lay down on the couch and let your kids come and sit on your back thinking it’s a bench. Just when your kids pretend to play like on a regular bench, you – the whale – awaken and move around shifting the balance from one place to another. Can the little ones calm the giant?
5. The mop
Want a quick way to clean the floors? Let your child lie on his back on the floor and drag them along the house by grabbing her feet. Make sure the floor is smooth so as to not hurt them.
Image courtesy: iStock
Before you get ready to rumble with your daughter, do remember that safety should be your top most priority. Kids are still developing physically and you do not want to end up going to the hospital because someone got a little too excited.
As a rule, you can always have the mum keeping a neutral view at all the activities so that if things are going awry, she can pull out the red card when necessary.
With daughters, do remember to take care of their neck and head. Also, do not try to swing her around by her limbs. Your little one’s joints are still developing and you do not want to put too much pressure there.
Having said that, make sure to have lots of fun, laugh, giggle, and get that workout in place. Not every game needs to be a sit down at home, you can always amplify it as long as everyone is having fun.
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