True Momma YYZ: Baby Plays

Gurus agree that babies learn thru games. According to the Talaris Institute, a Seattle-based institute that creates learning products for busy moms and pops and carers, inspiring babies to play frequently and in a variety of settings can help them learn to interact and cooperate with others, develop stronger peer relationships, and discover ways to manage stress. Wait “manage stress?” What does a baby need to be concerned about?

In the Info Age, there’s so much out there about the way to interact with your baby, what’s age-appropriate, what toys can stimulate hand-eye coordination, what plays improve talking skills, what is the etiquette for group play, etc, that a parent could find herself giving up and laying on the nursery floor while the baby pulls her hair.

For the first few months of our son’s life, I felt guilt at my appearing inability to play with him efficiently. Moreover, he didn't seem to even wish to play, unless “play” meant, in baby language, “cry and drink milk.” Apart from kid's rhymes, high-resolution board books, and fuzzy animals — none of which had a meeting with anything like approval — there did not appear to be anything to do with him. Sounds like fun, right?

Perturbed and unwilling to leave my now-three-month-old to simply cool his tiny heels in a swing or an exersaucer all day, I enrolled us in Make the Link, a ten-week program that is meant to “help folks engage with their babies in ways that promote secure attachment, communication and brain development” and that “combines hands-on activities, parent reflection and discourse as well as individualized video feedback.”

What issued from the weekly programme was that the baby loved songs but was not especially interested in other babies; and being younger than almost all of the others, he wasn't able to sit up, crawl, or explore, so that the class was a long one for him. If you've a baby who is negative to soothers, dislikes lying on his back or stomach, and is “very demonstrative” (as our group leader kindly stated), this might not be the class for you. Nevertheless it did get us out of the house one more afternoon per week and taught me a lot of baby songs that have captured my son’s heart — and made me the envy of all my buddies, whose babies I entertain with earnest renditions of “Zoom, Zoom.”

The quest for baby games for a baby who can't as yet crawl, whose desired purpose for each toy is to gum it to death, and who is a great deal more interested in the remote than the newest Fisher Price doo-dad, continues.

Heather Hadden is Toronto property agent and Immigration to Canada for Americansguide publisher