Dear Tracy,

As you know, pretend play is so important to early child development. 

(Here’s an article from Psychology Today if you’d like to learn the science behind it.)

As Mister Rogers always told us: 

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning.”

But, I’m going to be honest: Some days Imaginary Play is not my strong suit.

I can’t be the only mom who feels this way, so I put together a list of some easy to play ideas and some of my favorite props to help foster imagination in our home. 

Dear Tracy,

Do you remember growing up amidst the “perfection is the key” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Perfect grades, perfect behavior, and perfect everything? 

What if it’s not? 

I know, it sounds crazy when measured up to the internal dialogue of “Perfect”, but hear me out:

Today, while cleaning the kitchen, I didn’t have time to do a perfect job. I didn’t have the time to scrub my sink clean or scour the stove top.

But, are my clean dishes put away and dirty dishes loaded into the dishwasher? Is dinner in the crockpot? Is the counter clean? Are the floors swept? Are there pots drying from being hand washed? Yes. And it’s enough, for now, to make the kitchen clean and functional for other’s to use, but it’s not perfect. I could scrub the sink, the stove top, apply some furniture polish to the cabinets, tidy up some art projects drying on the counter top, and tackle the microwave; but right now it’s good enough. Why can’t Good Enough actually be Enough?