Roughhousing? Seriously? With Toddler or Young Child?

I am blown away to find that parents are actually engaging in consistent daily roughhousing activities with their toddler or young child.

I have to admit that I do not believe it is an appropriate or beneficial activity between a parent and child at any age. However at these stages of life it feels somewhat cruel and possibly life altering.

1.Oscar’s parents explained this activity as a way of toughening him up.

2.Michael’s parents explained it as a workout between them.

3.Roger’s parents engaged in it to tire him out.

This activity took place every morning for an hour – rolling him off the back of the couch, throwing him in the air etc.

Or

For a similar time period at night involving crawling around on the floor, throwing him up in the air, tickling him for an extended period and continuing these activities until he was so tired he was closing his eyes.

Or

Another approach was play boxing and karate kicking, along with horse back riding. I am not clear on the duration in this case except that sometimes the child was so overstimulated he could not fall asleep. In this case the activity backfired on the plan of getting him to sleep quickly.

I can hardly believe I am writing this. Not only do I believe it is harmful in so many ways, but that the parents have so many other options of interactive activity to enjoy with their child that would be beneficial. How about dancing, exercising, running and sliding at the park, soccer etc. My second point is that if this activity takes place at night to induce a “quick sleep” in most cases, a totally exhausted or overstimulated child will probably not fall asleep quickly and may experience an interrupted sleep.

Also in the twenty four years I have been a care giver, these three children were the only chronic biters ever.

I now also speculate that these experienced activities could be an experience that could become a germ toward bullying since this is really a big person taking advantage of a small person. Could that be how the child perceived it?

I am sure that there are a lot of people who think this activity is a lot of fun and could not create negative results, I am not one of them.

I am curious to know if there has been any research done and its results. I was unable to find anything even related. I would love to hear from you if you are aware of any study.

Thanks for being a member of my blog family. Good luck with all your parenting challenges!