The Kiddy Pool: Free to be Freida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""I can\u2019t imagine how many silly, beautiful things I\u2019d miss out on if I always initiated our play,"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Kiddy Pool: Free to be Freida\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""I can\u2019t imagine how many silly, beautiful things I\u2019d miss out on if I always initiated our play,"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-03T14:39:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erin Wyble Newcomb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Wyble Newcomb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/\",\"name\":\"The Kiddy Pool: Free to be Freida\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-03T14:39:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-03T14:39:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/870b8a210af6daa9acae651c24bad3a0\"},\"description\":\"\\\"I can\u2019t imagine how many silly, beautiful things I\u2019d miss out on if I always initiated our play,\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Kiddy Pool: Free to be Freida\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\",\"name\":\"Christ and Pop Culture\",\"description\":\"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/870b8a210af6daa9acae651c24bad3a0\",\"name\":\"Erin Wyble Newcomb\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0deca352f418bb7703a43e8ebb5d694b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0deca352f418bb7703a43e8ebb5d694b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Erin Wyble Newcomb\"},\"description\":\"Erin Wyble Newcomb earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Women's Studies from Penn State University. 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{"id":14209,"date":"2011-10-03T10:39:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T14:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=14209"},"modified":"2011-10-03T10:39:51","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T14:39:51","slug":"the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-free-to-be-freida\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kiddy Pool: Free to be Freida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Every week in\u00a0The Kiddy Pool<\/a><\/strong>, Erin Newcomb confronts one of many issues that parents must deal with related to popular culture. <\/em><\/p>\n

There are a lot of Freidas at our house. It\u2019s my daughter\u2019s latest naming trend, and I have no idea where it came from. We don\u2019t know anyone named Freida and I can\u2019t recall any stories with a Freida, but suddenly we need a numerical system just to differentiate the Freida crowd. One of our extended family members was not so thrilled about this, and promptly told my daughter \u201cNo, that\u2019s not her name. That\u2019s not a good name.\u201d That kind of thing makes me crazy, and while my style is usually a bit more laissez-faire, I stepped in right away on this one: \u201cIt\u2019s not your doll. You don\u2019t get to name her.\u201d Obvious, right?<\/p>\n

But I started thinking about how many interactions I see where grownups talk incessantly in an effort to instruct children on every aspect of a toy\u2019s use. That never occurred to me. Just play with it. Figure it out. The manufacturer\u2019s instructions are seldom a requirement, and they seem so darn limited. Maybe that\u2019s why my husband is in charge of all furniture assembly at our house, because I view how-to\u2019s as mere suggestions. We represent some rare extremes of temperament at our house, but I think there\u2019s a time and a place for both, as well as a need for balance.<\/p>\n

So my husband breaks down the process of getting dressed, and I provide buttons and ribbons to fancy up our playdough people and make a playdough pumpkin patch. Then there are the ideas and observations our daughter shares that are beyond us both\u2014like naming everyone Freida and hunting for snakes in the hose section of a garden store and building pterodactyls out of duplo blocks. Those pterodactyls, you know, are not pictured on the box.<\/p>\n

I was turning all these ideas around when a friend posted this article on our local mommy group: \u201c Don\u2019t Cramp Your Toddler\u2019s Style<\/a>.\u201d. Yes! I thought. The blogger, Janet Lansbury, asserts free-play as critical to child development, not because it boosts SAT scores but because it\u2019s creative and fun and an expression of each child\u2019s unique personality. Amen! I can\u2019t imagine how many silly, beautiful things I\u2019d miss out on if I always initiated our play, and I\u2019m sure I never would have met so many lovely Freidas.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"