Doing this activity with your child is actually really good for you too

I don’t know about you, but I seem to always find that my children ask me to come play with them the minute they sense I am in the middle of something else.

And then I tell them to wait a minute, and immediately feel guilty that I did so – something I am sure we can all relate to.

The thing is, parents, what we should be doing (apart from scrubbing the toilet bowl, because let’s face it, that needs doing too) is ignore all never-ending list of must-do’s and go join our kids in some play time.

Why? Because play, as a matter of fact, is also all sorts of good for our well being and health as adults too, according to Ikea’s recent Play Report.

In fact, according to the research conducted by the Swedish furniture giant and their team, play has all sorts of benefits. Most importantly, play helps us:

• Re-calibrate and relax
• Connect with each other
• Escape
• Explore
• Express ourselves

“In fact some of the most beneficial play is when children and adults play together,” the report’s authors note. “They connect and strengthen inter generational relationships and learn from each other.”

To conduct the research, Ikea’s team spent eight months connecting with 300 people—from 2-year-olds to 90-year-olds—in Germany, the US and China. And what they found was that while kids play as a way to comfort themselves and make sense of the world, adults play to seek power and creativity, to explore the world and feel liberated.

What do you say, parents? Doesn’t the idea of less stress and more fun sound all sorts of lovely? Yeah, we think so too.

“Our research has strengthened our belief that play is critical for a better everyday life at home,” says Maria Thörn, Range Manager for IKEA of Sweden.

The truth is that when we get down on the floor and play with our kids, or make time for that board game, we’re allowing ourselves an escape from the stressors of adult live while giving our kids a chance to develop creatively while mirroring adult behaviour.

There has been so much talk about how important play – and most importantly free play – is to kids, but as it turns out, it also matters greatly to our health and happiness as adults. So maybe, as it is with most other things, we need to go ahead and set a good example for our kids – especially now that more and more of us, big and small, are spending an increasing amount of time online.