Being woken at 5am to gale force winds, water cascading down the walls of your bathroom, water flowing in under the kitchen door, and ‘rain drops’ dripping from the corner of the kid’s room doesn’t make for a very fun start to the day. And things just went from bad to worse as the morning wore on. No electricity in parts of the house, which also means no running water. A school project to do in a week already full of extra activities. Two outfits to be purchased last minute for a violin concert and the baby’s birthday party to be cancelled. By lunch time I was on the verge of loosing it.
As I sat there wallowing in my self pity, wondering how the weather gods could be so cruel to us yet again (we had our new foundations flooded three times in the very early days of the renovations), my big boy put his hand on my knee and said…
“Don’t worry Mum…. we can always play dinosaurs.”
As we located and dragged out the box of dinosaurs, poked holes in bits of cardboard for branches of leaves and collected some grass for ‘dinosaur food’ I was struck by how important imagination is.
I’ve blogged about imaginative play before, and even wrote this article for Natural Parenting about why it is so important for our kids to making up your their stories, create their own little world, and get lost in the wonderfulness of it all… but there is one important reason our kids should use their imaginations that I forgot.
Having a great imagination as a child, will hopefully mean that you retain those skills as an adult.
Being able to imagine something different, something better, than your current reality is what hope is all about. Without an imagination I couldn’t see past the wet and soggy disaster that is our house at the moment, and see the amazing beautiful space it will become when the renovations are finished. Without imagination I couldn’t close the door, block out the noise of the wind, and pretend, just for a little while, that the mess isn’t there. I need my imagination to help me escape and take a mental break from all the stress.
So as I sat and roared like a Muttabuttasauras and pondered the question of who would win in a fight between a T-Rex and a Triceratops I was thankful to have a small boy with a big imagination to help take me away, into his world… just for a little while.
Have you got a good imagination? Do you use it?
What a beautiful and imaginative boy you have <3
Glad you were able to take some time out from the stress, and hope the weather is a bit kinder to you until the renos are done!
It’s just gotta not rain too much for the next 3 or so weeks… then the roof will be done and it can rain as much as it likes! And I’m going to be sorry I said that! LOL
bless bless!:) So glad you had this nice moment in amongst all the housey drama!!
“We can always play dinosaurs” … probably in your top ten of phrases you would never have expected to find comforting! Love it.
It’s so true that imagination is important. I try to exercise it with my fiction writing but time is a bit scarce for that, but spending time with the small boy helps. I think everybody has a good imagination, it’s just whether or not they practice using or it or don’t mind saying/thinking/doing “silly” stuff.
Yes…. being thankful for pretending to be a dinosaur was not something I thought I’d do today! LOL
kids always surprise me:)
I hadn’t really thought about this aspect of imagination before – to help us adults! I love how your boy wanted to include you in his dinosaur world.
And good luck with those renovations. May the sun shine on you for the rest of the week!
The imagination of children…. something to be treasured. What a beautiful boy you have!
You poor thing- building/renovating is a massive stress, exciting to think of the future, but, wow, what a nightmare as you’re stuck in the middle of the process. I read your post earlier in the week about your kitchen- I did that a couple of years ago, single and no cherubs. No-one to feed but myself. I can’t imagine what you’re going through!
do you remember where you found your cute little small-sized dinosaur figurines? i’ve been looking for good old fashioned mini dino toys like these and i can’t seem to track any down. when i was a little girl, they were all over the place; they even sold them at the grocery store!