Jack Plays!

Jack Plays

I recently interviewed one of my wisest friends, two-year-old Jack. As Jack zipped around wearing a towel-cape and “flying” a paper plane (complete with sound effects), I asked him what he had done that day. 

“Jack play,” he answered.

“What did you do yesterday?” I asked.

“Jack play,” he responded.

“What will you do tomorrow?” 

“Jack play!”  

Jack has planned a perfect life. Just play. In today’s high-pressure and hurried society, time for play is often sacrificed or eliminated. Recess loses out to academic preparation for high-stakes tests. But according to studies by the American Academy of Pediatrics, play (or free time for older children) “is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth.” Play is missing in many children’s lives. Between lessons and enrichment activities, many children have no time for simple unstructured play.

Unstructured free play supports creativity, brain development, and social interaction skills. According to the AAP, play helps children explore the world, practice adult roles and conquer fears, as well as develop new skills and confidence in their abilities. Children playing together learn to share, negotiate, cooperate and resolve conflicts. Active play enhances physical health.

So what is keeping children from playing? Many times it is the adults in their lives. Powerful marketing messages warn parents that unless provided with educational toys or enrolled in enrichment activities their children will fall behind. Fearful of short-changing their children, parents outsource play to professionals. 

Another play-stopper is technology. Static-hours are spent being passively entertained by computers and televisions. Fear also factors into limiting play. Can play be safe without adult supervision? 

Children look to parents for role models. They see hurried, intense adults, forsaking free time to work just a few more hours or answer a few more emails to move just a few more rungs up the ladder of success. Stressed and over-scheduled adults love their children but lack time to spend with them. 

Adults, worried that children will lack the skills they need for future success, limit the very thing most likely to help them develop into fully-formed adults — play. The AAP states that while no one knows what skills will be needed for future success, engaging in free play develops “certain character traits which produce children capable of navigating an increasingly complex world….” Play helps children develop “confidence…honesty, generosity, decency, tenacity, and compassion… all traits of resiliency [found] within a home in which parents and children have time together to look to each other for positive support and unconditional love.”

How can parents add play back into their family’s life? The AAP advises that “some of the best interactions [between parents and children] occur during downtime — just talking, preparing meals together, working on a hobby or art project, playing sports together or being fully immersed in child-centered play.” Take a walk to the park, build a backyard fort, put on a cape and save the world. Stay home. Avoid screens. Be, silly. Be together. 

After our interview, Jack drafts me into his air force. I grab a few blocks and build an airport. Jack safely lands his plane and grins. His life’s plans are set. Play and be happy.

Children of the Corn

Children of the Corn

I was making a pronouncement. (I am prone to these and my children and husband know to turn tail and run when they feel one coming.) “I refuse to be made of corn!” This particular pronouncement came out of my reading of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Mr. Pollan, in his investigation of food sources in America, lists a huge number of corn-based products. Everything from toothpaste to explosives uses components of corn. Corn is a multibillion-dollar industry. 

Now, this won’t come as a revelation to those who grew up in rural America. Corn is everywhere — especially from June to October. Garrison Keillor, on his radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” lists sweet corn as one of the four great joys of life. The first, he says, is “The joy of walking with God.” The second is the joy of learning. The third is “whatever you thought of first,” and the fourth is sweet corn. Who hasn’t relished the taste of fresh sweet corn straight from the field on a summer’s evening? 

Sweet corn aside, most of the corn grown on the mega-farms of today is used for other purposes. Much of it feeds cattle. A pound of beef is created from a trough of corn. Much processed food is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Read almost any label and “HFCS” will be there. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg (or should I say corn-berg?)

Diapers, glue, insecticides, latex paint, instant coffee, shoe polish, soap, paper plates, gasoline, crayons and dry cell batteries are produced using corn products. Even the antibiotics given to humans (and farm animals) include corn. Corn is quietly pervasive in our lives.

Corn is a water-heavy crop. 350,000 gallons of water is needed to produce an acre of corn. Each plant yields one to two ears which equates to two to four gallons a week per ear. A lot of the water taken from rivers and reservoirs is used to irrigate corn. This is especially distressing in corn-growing/drought-suffering areas of the country. 

Now I am not on a rampage against corn or corn farmers. My rant relates to the way corn products are hidden in processed foods. Whole corn kernels are nutritious, but the components of corn that are pulled out to put into processed food may not maintain their nutrients. Good old HFCS is a sugar that goes straight to your liver and from there straight to fat. Your poor liver has enough to do cleansing your system without clogging it up with HFCS. 

So I read every label. If the ingredients include HFCS, I put the product down. I like sweet corn, but I don’t like hidden products which may adversely affect my health or add pounds to my frame. Corn isn’t the only culprit. Processed sugars of any kind and white flours can also overwork your liver. Read labels and make your own choices about your diet.

Staying healthy requires constant vigilance. Decide on your own diet parameters. Make your own pronouncements and stick with them. Your liver and your health will thank you.