3 Safe Games You Can Encourage Your Child To Play When You’re Busy
You’d love to give your child 100% of your attention, 24 hours a day. Unless you can split your body into two people, that’s not possible. There will be periods when you’re busy, and you have a child crying out to play or saying they’re bored. The default decision is to shoo them away and tell them to play a game or watch TV. While not a bad idea, you want to have some measure of control over what they do.
That’s why encouraging them to play safe and family-friendly games is a smart choice. You’ll be relaxed knowing that they’re not seeing things they shouldn’t while you can do something else for a few moments. Plenty of these games exist – but here are three to encourage them to play more than others:
Chess
Online chess is an easy and safe way for your children to have fun while developing a lot of key skills. It’s good for their brain and teaches them valuable lessons like the power of patience and thinking multiple steps ahead.
The beauty of online chess is that you can pair your child with a computer. Some websites will even have chess dedicated to kids so that they can play against other children. There’s no downside – and you’ll legitimately see improvements in their school work because of this game.
Pinball
Few games are as harmless as good old-fashioned pinball. Online pinball is 100% free and completely child-friendly. They don’t play against anyone or come up against anything big or scary. It’s a simple case of pressing a few buttons on their keyboard and mouse, then trying to beat high scores.
The repetitive nature makes it a perfect game during your busiest periods. You need to do something for 30-60 minutes and must find a way of occupying your child. Pinball gives them something that sucks them in and keeps them engaged.
Puzzles
Okay, maybe this is a cop-out! “Puzzles” is more of a game genre than a specific game, but it’s here because there are too many puzzles to pick individually. A classic picture puzzle will always be a fun way to entertain your kids when they’re bored. Then, you have cool puzzles like the one with cars arranged on a grid. Your child has to try and move the cars to get a special car out – it’s available as a toy or online.
You could even throw in things like Where’s Waldo or sudoku and other book-style puzzles. Whatever you choose, it’s bound to keep your kids happy when you’re busy. The trickiness of puzzles engages your child and gives them a goal to work towards. They get caught up in them and pass the time without even remembering to moan at you!
Please take note that this isn’t an excuse to throw games in front of your child whenever they’re bored. You should try to spend time with them and do practical things – like painting, going to the park, or reading – as much as possible. These games are useful when you physically don’t have the time to do anything else and need to keep them occupied for a short period.
