Look alive, tired parents everywhere; What if I told you that you can entertain your kids without even needing to be upright?

It’s called “horizontal parenting,” and it’s a way in which you can play with your kid while you’re — get this — laying down. Yeah, I figured that would perk up your ears.

The concept isn’t entirely new; there’s even a book published in 2021 full of ideas on how to parent while laying down. But it’s seeing a recent resurgence thanks to influencer Elkey Zandra @elkeyzandra, who posted a Reel of her husband doing various activities with their two young kids while he remains perfectly, literally, horizontal. 

In the video, the couple’s son and daughter engage in five clever activities while their dad lays down, like; zoom cars up and down a road he drew onto the back of a t-shirt; play dress-up with dad as the ragdoll; DIY whack-a-mole; backscratch a sequin “zen garden;” and play a game of giant tic-tac-toe.

What some parents may call lazy, others, like most of the commenters, it seems, call genius. “Minimum effort, maximum bonding,” the @wayfair Instagram account wrote. Truly, there is no better way for a tired mom or dad to parent than like this, folks.

And yes, I do say this from experience. One of my favorite things to play with my son is doctor's office, when he role-plays as a doctor and I’m the patient. This usually involves me putting my feet up on the ottoman and telling the doctor that one of my ankles is injured. Woe is me, right? Then, when he whips out his Melissa & Doug doctor’s play kit and tells me to close my eyes and pretend to be asleep for “surgery,” I have never been happier to oblige.

Still, the idea of horizontal parenting (much like the similar idea of “sittervising,” which means overseeing our kids’ play from another room) sheds more light on the guilt so many of us feel as millennial parents. Are we paying enough attention to them? Should we be doing more for our kids than passively engaging in playtime from the couch or the carpet?

 The truth is we should all get more comfortable with the idea of not having to be “on” with them 24/7. We should allow ourselves to parent however we want, and from whatever physical position we so desire. Besides, the kids are the reason we’re so tired in the first place, so the least they can do is let us sit down.

What’s your favorite “horizontal parenting” activity?

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