Monday, January 18, 2010

Who Am I?

Just a short jotting about a game my family has been playing at dinner every evening for the past few days called “Who Am I?”. It’s basically “20 Questions,” although there isn’t a limit, and generally we all chose a “person” to be. I put person in quotes because we’re often various cartoon creatures, aliens, animals and others. “Personalities” might be a better word.

Eiledon had played it at school and then brought it home for us to try. Everyone does a pretty good job choosing personalities that we’re sure the other three would be able to identify. This isn’t easy. The kids and I have the shared reference of Cartoon Network shows which Dan never sees. And, of course, Dan and I have years of common experience we can’t tap because the kids haven’t been around that long. But we’re a close family and it’s not too difficult to find a personality we can all figure out.

An example of how well we know each other: It was Dan’s turn—possibly even the first time he ever played. He said he had though of someone to “be” and we could start asking questions.

Eiledon and I asked a few and narrowed the field to an actual person (rather than a fictional character) who was living and male. Gavin, who had been absolutely silent to that point said, “Billy Joel.” Dan’s jaw dropped open, for, of course, Gavin was right. He had pulled the name out without pertinent facts like: famous, musician, rock & roll, or any other clues. He just knew that Dan would pick Billy Joel. We all had a good laugh at Gavin’s perception—and Dan’s obvious choice.

In the book I just read on parenting kids with ADHD, the author stressed the importance of nurturing a “connected childhood” for such children: connected to family, traditions, community and so on and so forth. It good to know that something as simple as a family game around the table carries such weight in child development. I remember playing all sorts of games with my family growing up and it makes sense to me now how that encouraged a depth of interrelationship that created security and stability in an otherwise unpredictable life. At the time, I just thought we were having fun. Because we were. I guess it doesn’t always have to be rocket science.

1 comment:

  1. Bek, it sounds like both you and Dan are doing a wonderful job building connection and community and security and FAMILY with your children; awesome.

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