Wrestle Mania Has Come To Our Living Room!

We now have a queen sized mattress sitting on our living room floor. It takes up  a lot of space and my daughter can no longer ride her new tricycle around our place with ease. It was our former mattress until my husband’s side grew too lumpy. It then sat beside our bed for over a year. My husband was hoping it would become a place for where my daughter would sleep. No. Now it sits on our living room floor because we’ve had a flow of house guests. We might just kept it there because when it doesn’t serve as a bed, it’s an amazing trampoline and most recently, a wrestling mat. Wrestle Mania has come to our living room!

Every morning and most nights, if anyone comes calling, they will find the whole family – even our cat accidentally sometimes – wrestling on our extra mattress and it isn’t tame. My daughter is pinning us down, using the force of her legs to push us off and throw us onto the floor. My husband is using his full force to get me down while I play dirty and use my nails. He has an almost fifty pound weight advantage. I guess excuses are never a real reason to fight dirty… what if I say I use my nails with his permission and don’t scratch too deeply? Sometimes, I bite too… so does my daughter though her bites tend to be wet and leave absolutely no marks. My bites don’t break any skin, just a slight imprint for a few minutes. Those are my techniques to gain the upper hand from my husband in play.

Fred O. Davidson has an amazing theory of play called Original Play. He also holds workshops around the world. His theory is based on getting back to our animal ways of playing and connecting – to be wolves with each other, and play together which involves our physical nature. When Mishy was younger, we would head near Ocean Park Blvd where the beach meets near our home in Santa Monica. There is a large flat grassy area. Mishy and I would lie there together, then both get on all fours and be wolves together. She would climb on top of me, we would gently wrestle and sway together. She would lead me in how she wanted to play. We would play as animals together. I feel this newfound love of wrestling is a continuation of our physical play – one that invokes a lot of laughter, play, delight, and even tears – tears in line with Hand In Hand’s Playlistening – where through play, children are able to release and work on their fears, feel powerful and test themselves.

I received Hand In Hand’s DVD of Playlistening a few months back after participating in a focus group for them and recently asked my husband to view it. I am so thankful I have a husband who is willing to view these progressive parenting DVDs. The next day of wrestling increased in joy and my husband was giving me pointers on how to play with my daughter – which I found incredibly refreshing.

Details:

Original Play

http://www.originalplay.com/

Hand In Hand’s Playlistening:

article: http://www.handinhandparenting.org/news/56/64/Playlistening