Interacting with children requires both time and mental 'space.' Putting 110 Pokémon cards into a card case, one by one.

The other day, it was just before we were about to head out.

My two children were each playing a Pokémon card battle with their dad.
(Dad was playing against both of them at the same time. Is he talented or what? lol)

My second-grade son was in the middle of a battle, and my daughter in kindergarten had already finished hers with her dad, so I wanted to start tidying up for our outing.

My husband called out, "We're leaving soon, so let's put these away," but they didn't look like they were going to do it at all, so I was wondering what to do when suddenly...

I said, and while glancing at my daughter, I put one Pokémon card into the card case.

Luckily, my daughter took the bait, and...

she started putting the Pokémon cards into the case one after another.

It was fine at first, but perhaps this is a common thing with kids, it just kept going on and on. At a glance, there seemed to be about 100 cards...

Usually, I would have interrupted and said something like, "That's enough, let's just put them all in, okay?" but at that moment, we had a little time before we had to leave, my son was still battling, and I decided to go along with her until she was satisfied.

And so, we counted together up to the final 110th card, and they barely fit into the card case!

My daughter looked absolutely delighted.

When I look back on this play, I thought it was a time thatperfectly encapsulated how to interact with children.

Accepting what the child wants to do, being close to their feelings, and just being there with them, even if the adult is just standing by. If they ask for help, you respond. A way of interacting where
you respect the child's proactive feelings and the adult just watches over them.

Another important point here is thatthe adult watching over them has a lot of space.At that time, although I had plans later, I wasn't in a rush, so I had
time to spare.Also, it was a relaxed Saturday afternoon, there was nothing in particular I had to do, and I was in a state with almost no stress, so I hadplenty of mental space as well.

That is precisely why I think I was able to put the cards into the case one by one, repeating it 110 times—in other words, being able to go along with my daughter.

I believe that the childcare settings where numerous horrific incidents have recently come to light, and mothers struggling with solo parenting while caring for infants, are exactly in this state of having no 'room'.

When you are short-staffed, have absolutely no time, and have a mountain of things that need to be done next, you are in such a desperate state with no room in your time or heart that even if you aspire to be close to a child's proactive feelings, I believe it is absolutely impossible.

That is precisely why I think the national and local governments absolutely must change the staffing standards for childcare workers in nurseries, and if mothers are suffering from solo parenting, I think they should go ahead and outsource housework and childcare, or rely on technology like cooking appliances.
By using every possible method to create room in terms of time and spirit, interactions with children will gradually become more fulfilling, the time spent happily by both adults and children will increase, and furthermore, I believe it will lead to the development of an environment that promotes the healthy physical and mental growth of children.

This is unrelated, but
they fell asleep again at this hour... (;^_^A What should I do?

Well then, that's all for today.

Thank you for reading until the end!

hona

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