Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Fort Worth, TX

1.   No matter how they will disagree, TV is not important to your child! They like it - yes! They can learn great things on it - yes! But, how important is it really? As you can imagine, I am not a TV fan. It has its place though for short time periods.  However, if you took TV away and substituted it with other interactive activities, your child would not miss it at all (until their teen years anyway!).

2.      Learning to read by age 3! It seems like, along with everything else, society has gotten uber-competitive on how early their child can read.  I see schools and programs that specialize in this popping up all the time.  There must be a market for it when a school posted a huge billboard on the side of the road "We Teach Your Child to Read as Early as 3!"  Children are undeniably brilliant at this age - I believe they can learn to read letters, words and be able to cognitively read.  However, they have only recently begun to grasp concepts, which is the whole point of reading anyway. Reading for the sake of reading is useless.  Reading to learn and understand concepts is where the value is - and it ain't happenin' at 3!

3.      Matching! From the time they can dress themselves, they wear their favorite colors, or their favorite character, or their favorite shirt inside out. It's not about matching; it's about choice and preference.  It is not important to them that orange and purple clash or that Elmo pants with Barbie shirt really don't look good. What is important is that they got to pick it out and have some control over their little lives. So, while we may avoid making eye contact in public, our little ones are walking proud with their heads high and their shoulders back showing off their (lack of) fashion statement!

4.      Saving special things for later! This is not about saving treats for later or learning to take care of things, it's about saving that special doll or toy forever. You know - the holiday Barbie that you don't want her to break or rip or take out the updo or the vintage train set that Grandpa made and just looks so great in junior's room.  It's that kind of special thing that is not important to your child.  For you, it's something you know she'll cherish when she's older; heck, it might even be worth some money. However, children see things here and now and they have no concept of the fact that a doll or a vintage train set isn't something to be savored and enjoyed now. After seeing the disappointment in my daughter's eyes, I now put those things away that I want to save for her. It meets my need for preservation and it doesn't confuse her as to why she can't play with such a wonderful and special toy.

5.      A Clean House! Obviously, you don't want the kids growing up in a dust bowl; nor do you want them to never see you clean.  However, having an immaculate home, however important it is to you, is not important to your child.  It makes me crazy not to have things picked up every night, but these days, it's so much more fun to spend the time with my kids while they're awake and do just the bare minimum after they go to bed. I'm not totally satisfied with the house, but I feel fulfilled nonetheless by having spent such great time with my kids. I just tell myself that in ten years, I'll have all the time in the world to clean the house and I'll be missing the days when we danced around the living room singing and rolling around on the floor tickling each other!

What else is on your list of things that are not important to a child?