After my post yesterday passing out free and unsolicited advice on how moms, especially older moms, should take care of themselves to avoid becoming "stressorexic", this story about how today's parents are "too tired to play" seems like a bitter icing on the cake few of us get the time to bake.

Almost half of modern parents are so exhausted by the drudgery of daily life that they cannot muster the energy to play with their children, according to research.

Drudgery of daily life? Excuse me while I make one of those hrrrumphing noises that go well with indignation.

Okay, the angle on the piece is really on exercise, not pure and simple play, the point being that we all feel better when we've moved around enough to keep the blood from pooling in our butts, and I'm all for anything that improves health and mood and helps to keep us around longer, but that "drudgery of life" bit alongside any intimation that play should be a big part of my day ticks me off.

Don't get me wrong, I was a happy enough kid and enjoyed rousing games of "Mother May I?" and was a Hula-Hooping maniac ... yeah, I'm that old ... but when I hung up my jump rope at the age of about thirteen I was pretty well done with kid games, and having some of my own -- kids, that is -- didn't inspire me to revisit hopscotch as a pastime.

If I remember my childhood correctly, and I have one of those memories that assures I do, having my mom join in a game of tag was never something I longed for. Perfectly content to do kid stuff with kids and other stuff with grownups, I've always found adults compelled to butt in at playtime a bit embarrassing.

Of course, I play pat-a-cake with babies and sing silly songs with toddlers, get down and dirty in the mud with my four-year-olds, put on puppet shows and dance with the Wiggles, but I stop short of joining the tag team and insisting on being let in on all the fun.

Since my present is, in some form at least, the future for my children, I see it as part of my job to present the adult world as a place they will be happy to inhabit. No, it's not all fun and games, and that's okay ... in fact, it's better than okay because eventually fun and games aren't all fun and games ... but it's also not all drudgery.

That work is satisfying, even fun, is not a concept that comes naturally to a child, and if work and the rest of what constitutes daily life for most adults is presented as a sentence to be served, where can a kid learn to love their work?

The luckiest grownups I know wake up every morning enthused and excited over what their day will bring, and what they will bring to the day. Loving what you do for a living is a great gift, and creating that as a reality takes making it an early goal.

Kids who watch their parents doing adult things ... working, cleaning, cooking, washing, sending emails, reading books ... and taking satisfaction, joy, and even fun from doing what must be done have a much better chance of spending the bulk of their lives -- and childhood is but a short and fleeting stage -- happier than those who see everything but play as some sort of grind ... a drudgery.

So, get out there and run around with the kids, go for bike rides and hikes, play with Barbie if you like, but don't feel guilty when the times come to leave the kids to their games. Kids will be kids, and you get to be you, too.