Before I had kids of my own, I always felt awkward around youngsters at family gatherings.
It turns out the job isnt hard if you know a few good icebreakers.
If a baby seems sleepy or oblivious to the world, just give her a nice hug.
Her head can rest on your shoulder.
Just talk or sing.
Cant think of what to say?
Try the alphabet song.
They can see adults yammering at them any time.
Not really:
Put something on top of your head.
Establish a silly cause and effect.When I touch my toe, it goes Braaap!
Yes, you will be using your voice for the sound effect.
Stack things on top of each other.Blocks if you have them, household objects if you dont.
Expect whatever you stack to be instantly knocked down.
Thats half the fun.
Wiggle your fingers along the floor.Now your hand is a spider!
Its a TICKLE SPIDER AAUUUGH NOW ITS COMING FOR YOOOOU!
Now, you arent going to just up and tickle every kid you meet.
They may be wary of you as a stranger, and thats just fine.
Show them the tickle spider, and use it to tickleyourself.
The kid might just watch, but sometimes theyll want to get involved: either tickling or being tickled.
Their little brains are still trying to figure out physics, and they will be simplyamazed.
Stop by anyplace that has party favors, and grab a pocket sized bottle of bubbles.
The kids will giggle and run around trying to pop the bubbles.
But theyre also old enough to have a little bit of an attention span.
Dance party.This works for every age, really.
Put onWe Are the Dinosaursand stomp around, or crank up your own favorite tunes.
Kids this age will often have a favorite TV show or movie.
You could ask So, you like Paw Patrol, huh?
but that wont get you very far.
Instead, ask what a characters name is, and then ask what that characterdoes.
(It may be mixed with other shows plots plus some figments of their imagination.
They may be playing on sports teams and devouring favorite book series, for example.
That means there should be plenty of common ground for conversations besides the same old Hows school?
that they get from all their other relatives.
Or just bring up something thats interesting to you, and ask what they think of it.
If you have atabletop gameon hand, thats a good choice too.
Rope them into cookingor some other purposeful activitybut letthembe the boss.
What should we make?
How should we decorate these cookies?
Show each other the funniest YouTube videos it’s possible for you to find.
Youre both pretty much guaranteed to see something new.
Before long, everybody will be laughing together.
Illustration by Jim Cooke.Photos byBarbara W,Donnie Ray Jones,Carissa Rogers,Oakley Originals.
