More about babies and loving them

Yesterday I bought a baby rattle, because it is fashioned as a Holstein cow and I love cattle, both the real fragrant living things, and knick-knacks of them. As I unwrapped it I thought again about how so many parents do not understand the need for tactile play with their babies, rather than any television time at all. (See my previous rant on this subject). I thought about the babies I've helped raise (like my niece) or have had the pleasure of cuddling and how this new rattle would have been such a simple yet wonderful shared experience. I'd have the baby on my lap and first show her how I pry open the container to remove the rattle. This shows baby how things come apart and something else can seem to "appear" to them. I'd actually also help baby touch the edges of what I'd just done, and maybe open and close it a few more times. This helps baby see three dimensionally, comprehend figures, and develop tactile sensitivity and confidence... something that not even the most "educational" or "fun" video can do. In fact, this is one reason we have so many learning issues with children. They are seeing on a flat screen activities that are too rapid, too flat, too non-contextual. They can't touch the bouncing ball on TV, for example. I could easily spend a half an hour showing baby a new rattle. I'd help her hands move over it's surface and show her that shaking it moves the 3 dangling keys on it. I'd show her that it could "disappear" behind something and reappear. This is something that is vital to healthy baby development, by the way. Again, TV gives a weird perspective that's not right, things pop up all around and there's no 3D reality. Babies need to have parents play with them in order to calmly and happily understand the 3D world. Hide and go seek with the rattle shows baby that she can have confidence that something that is there can be out of sight for a moment, and then recovered. TV makes the unreal real all the time, and all at too high an electronic pace for babies, whose brain circuitry is still forming. Time spent with the simplest of toys with a baby is such fun (when else can you see a sweet face so easily happy, in this otherwise sad and stressful world?) And this time helps the baby to learn, to have joy and confidence, and gives the baby the true grounding in the real, three dimensional warm world that her brain needs to develop, to say nothing of the wonderful bonding. I'm always amazed at how some parents have no idea how simple and fruitful that real play is with their babies.