But now that my son is 8, I feel differently. I realized too late that once kids are old enough to play independently, their energy is directed toward each other, and that takes a huge amount of pressure off of the parents to entertain them. I noticed that my girlfriend was no more encumbered by two than I was with one. I’d venture to say that the parents of only children spend twice as much time on their hands and knees pushing Thomas trains around in mind-numbing figure eights, playing dolls, catching bugs, building Lego villages, and running after Wiffle Balls.
