Ask Margaret: Help! My Boys Won't Stop Roughhousing

How do you keep your very active kids safe when they constantly want to roughhouse with each other? Someone in our Facebook group asks:

Boy moms… help! The fighting, the yelling, the running, hitting, jumping, climbing…I have a 4.5yo and a 3 yo… Any advice or tips? We separate them to different levels when it gets out of hand. Or we say any running needs to happen outside, but it’s difficult to execute when I’m home alone (which is often). How do you all handle it?

Margaret, who has two boys of her own who love roughhousing, explains the house rules around the "sport" that work for her family.

There are actually a lot of benefits to letting kids roughhouse with each other once there are certain safety parameters in place. It gives kids the joy of physical touch, the opportunity to explore and set boundaries, and the benefit (for you!) of tiring them out! You may find that MORE, not less, roughhousing is just the ticket for your active kids!

Here are links to the resources Margaret references:

• Jessica Wozinsky Fleming for The Washington Post: "Why roughhousing is good for kids, and how to keep it safe"
• Big Body Play by Frances M. Carlson
• The Art of Roughhousing: Good Old-Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It by Anthony T. DeBenedet and Lawrence J. Cohen
• Ignore It!: How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and Increase Parenting Satisfaction by Catherine Pearlman

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