Holy Bounce! (Lisa)

When my youngest daughter Fiona started middle school, our conversations seemed to go from a descriptive bubbly stream of consciousness to a one-word response. We needed a little bounce in our relationship. Down to the safer, dead-end court we would ride our bikes, no helmets on, while I tried to noodle some conversation out of her. I know, bad mom but it was the only way I could get her on a bike and hopefully distracted enough to squeak out a word or two!

We came up with a game we named BOUNCE. The beauty of the game is mom can’t control the topic or length of the conversation. I’m a mom who needs to let go of control a little bit, especially with my Fiona. The rules of the game allowed Fiona to say as much or as little as she liked and then “bounce” it back to her chatty mommy. It works best if you are riding helmetless in tight circles in a culdesac but here’s how it goes: Fiona would shout out the random letter, “M” then turning the tight curve on my bike, I’d shout, “MILKSHAKE.” Fiona would now have to talk about milkshakes for as long or short as she liked. Once she was done sharing, she’d shout, “BOUNCE” and then I would start the cycle throwing out the letter “B”, She’d say, “BASEBALL” and I would take my turn talking about my love for the game, playing it as a kid, trips to the ballpark, on and on, round and round we’d go. The best thing about BOUNCE is I couldn’t steer the conversation with my daughter. I had to just let it bounce wherever it landed. Breaking rules and bouncing made the list of favorite things in her childhood. Mine too! --Lisa