Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Last Christmas, my wife bought me a book titled, “Lay Down Daddy Games” by Jim Manduca. Upon opening the present, I immediately burst out laughing. The description of the book was, “25 easy to do activities with the kids when you just don’t feel like getting up”.
I am happy to accept that there are times in which I can be moderately lazy. My wife may argue the term “moderately”. However, I couldn’t help but be intrigued as to what some of these lay down games were!
I will note for the record, that I thoroughly enjoy playing games with my daughter. I also spend a lot of time playing games with her. But I am sure I am not alone in saying that sometimes it is hard to match the enthusiasm or commitment that it takes when entertaining a young child.
The reality is, that in these moments I have already gravitated to some of these “lay down games”. This made it all the more enjoyable to read through the activities in this book and see how many I had already tried. 11 out of 25 was my score! This was very exciting. It meant there were lots of new opportunities to entertain my child whilst lying down!
Therefore, I wanted to discuss my personal top 5 games from the “Lay Down Daddy Games” book by Jim Mandcua and review the bigger message I feel the book sends.
1st – Blanket Monster
There wasn’t any doubt in my mind when picking out my number one favourite game to play when lying down. Blanket Monster, as the name suggests, is a game in which you hide underneath a blanket and surprise an unsuspecting (or more likely a completely suspecting) child!
I have modified this game slightly and made it way comfier than lying on the floor under a blanket. We now play it in the comfort of my bed. I lie wrapped up in my quilt, head on the pillow with my eyes closed, waiting for my little girl to slowly approach. Those few minutes lying in bed waiting, feel like a little holiday. Obviously, you then need to burst into life to surprise the child. If you don’t do that, they will quickly get bored and have to get out of bed and the holiday is over.
So there is no doubt in my mind, if you can both entertain your child, whilst being wrapped up in your quilt in bed…that is going top of my list!
2nd – Gamer Tag “Daddy”
Playing video games is still a common pass time of mine. I was brought up as games consoles started to emerge and I have continued playing to this day. Obviously, becoming a parent means that I spend considerably less time playing now. However, I still try and play when I can. I am currently locked into playing Hogwarts Legacy.
When a window of opportunity emerges to get the Xbox controller out and fly around Hogwarts, it seems that my daughters favourite pass time is to come in and steal the controller. Reading the book I stumbled across the game of giving your child a broken controller or a controller without batteries and pretending that they are playing with you.
My first thought was, “this is genius”. So I tried it out with my daughter. It worked! She happily sat next to me clicking buttons, laughing and talking away about what was happening on the TV screen. The controller wasn’t doing anything, however, my daughter’s imagination was doing all the work. We were both able to sit together enjoying the game, both getting what we needed from it.
This lasted 5 minutes. My daughter got bored, grabbed my hand and said, “Come on Daddy”. She took me to the next room and had me crawl around, with her sat on my back whilst she shouted “Horsey! Horsey!”
Those 5 minutes were worth it though.
3rd – Hand People
This is one of my daughter’s favourite games to play. As you may be able to guess by the name, the game involves turning your hands into little people and have them perform to your child’s delight. I could be lying on the sofa watching TV and my daughter will run up to me and ask for “The little man”. Which is my cue to turn my hand into a little walking man that she can play with. She will pick him up, send him to sleep, throw him around, give him cuddles and have him tickle her. All of which are happening with me continuing to be able to lie on the sofa! Minimal effort required!
To keep it fresh, we have even expanded the game to animals, with the introduction of the “Little spider”. We have even got to the point now where she is in the bath and will ignore all the bath toys we have bought for her. She will instead ask for the little spider or the little man and make them go swimming.
It just goes to show that it is not always about having the expensive toys.
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4th – The Tickle Claw
Similar to the Hand People, the tickle claw can be an imaginative and innovative way of entertaining your child. I am pretty sure that most of us will have either used this, had this done to you by your own parents or have thought about doing it!
For me, hearing your child laugh is just one of the most infectious sounds. Therefore, playing the tickle claw game is an easy game that is highly enjoyable. It takes minimal effort and if your child is anything like mine, they will keep asking for it again and again, until they are completely worn out and want to lie down anyway!
The most recent development with my daughter, is that she has started to copy and do the tickle claw back to us. She is only two years old. Therefore, it is very cute to see a toddler put their hand on your leg, starting wiggling their fingers, shouting “tickle, tickle tickle!”
5th – Buried Treasure
Now this is a game I haven’t tried yet, but I have taken from the book as an excellent idea to try!
The idea behind the game is to lie on the floor and have your child bury you in pillows, cushions, blankets, soft toys or anything of this nature, so you are hidden underneath. It is both a building game, a hiding game and could even be a scaring game if your child would enjoy it!
Our daughter loves what she calls “camps”. Which is basically being under covers, under a blanket or hidden away. Therefore, I think she would love both building something over me and also us doing this to her. I am certainly going to give this a try, which is why I am putting it at 5th place.
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Book review:
In what is a fun and useful suggestion book for different games we can play with our children, I think it also highlights a much bigger point. There can be so much pressure applied to parents, whether it be from advertisements or even other parents, to buy lots of different toys, items or equipment. Usually with the suggestion that this is all important for your child’s development.
However, this book highlights that actually there are so many opportunities for parents to meet these different developmental needs, all through very simple ways and means. Lots of parents cannot afford to buy the latest toys or items and are made to feel guilty for not being able to do so. I think this is both unnecessary and wrong. In my experience, when my daughter has been given a choice of playing with a toy or playing with me, I win 9 times out of 10. Therefore, don’t feel guilty if you don’t have all the latest toys, the best toy they have is you!
I really enjoyed both the ideas in the book and the idea behind the book. It is a short and simple book, with excellent ideas that I think many parents would enjoy flicking through for some inspiration of games they can play with their child. My wife bought it for me as a tongue in cheek gift for Christmas and I think it is a notable idea for anyone looking for a fun gift for a parent!
Let me know your own favourite games to play whilst lying down in the comments below!
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