Do your little kids like rough and tumble with you?

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My boy loves it, I tickle him and nibble his ears and put my knuckles in his ribs..he gets really excited and fends me off, and gets his elbows up blocking me, uses his hands to push my face up and away when I'm trying to blow raspberries on his tummy, gets his knees up, he's got some excellent defensive techniques! And he pinches and grapples me, and he just laughs and laughs And he looks in my eyes all the time.
And if I let up or lie down he comes and stands all over me and squashes my face with his, and pulls my hands because he wants to play fight more. And once we're done he is very relaxed and calm.

I think it's not just he really likes it, but he almost needs to do rough and tumble. I notice when he's with my wife or his therapists sometimes I can see him jutting his jaw out and looking frustrated and he's giving them very firm 'cuddles' with pinching and grappling, and they don't like it and tell him to stop, but I say it's just a boy thing and he wants to play fight.

Because of my disease I cant play rough with my kids anymore but I still lay down with them and tickle them...they have learned to be gentle with me. Fortunately they have my husband.....my son has named this game "Attack the Daddy"!

My boys also love this type of rough and tumble, to a point. They/we have certain rules surrounding it that keep them feeling safe and in control else it always ends in tears. But this is all with my husband. I can't handle this type of play at all. It sends me into sensory overload double quick!

There are a lot of studies (many focusing on gender differences in parenting) that show the importance of appropriate rough play with children; I think it's not only important for motor development, but it's also supposed to build a willingness to take risks.

DS still loves it, even at 10; it's tough with maybe-not-so-neurotypical parents and a kid on the spectrum, though. We have a rule - anybody who spells out S-T-O-P stops the game instantly (that way, he can scream STOP! or NO! as part of the game which is something he wants to do, but still know how to get us to stop when he needs to) Unfortunately, it's always over too soon for DS and he often stalks away angry that he didn't get more.

My son is a sensory seeker and loves it. It's really the only form of playing with other kids he really digs. Unfortunately he doesn't get nearly enough.

The two kids who most like to rough and tumble with him are not only years younger, but very small for their ages (and he is very large for his.) Seeing how he has learned to be very careful and gentle with them -- sometimes to the point where they beat him up, because they haven't developed enough impulse control yet! -- has been wonderful.

My bro and I always play fought as kids to a point too even though we're both gentle guys. We wouldn't hurt one another and we learnt and knew the limits through this. I think its brilliant for developing motor skills and learning how to be physical without hurting. Also a couple of times when I was older I got attacked by people through no fault of my own, instinctively I could fend off their blows, get in close, get them in a headlock with one arm behind them.."do you wanna go on with this or leave me alone?".
Totally ridiculous.

Anyway I'm super impressed at how good my little 3yr old Autie is. Might get him into martial arts one day.

My 5 yr old son has always loved this type of play. My husband is able to do more of it, but I do it some too. He loves to climb all over me and give really hard hugs. It is so wonderful to see him doing this because he seemed so weak up until about age 4, and then we really noticed that he seemed so much stronger. I think it is maybe the deep pressure that he enjoys too.

I think I did as a kid. I had three older brother whom I could pounce on at anytime. One of them has been hitting me for no reason and will sing, "Sisters were made for hittin..." I know he dosen't mean any harm by it but he's so rough and leaves bruises. It drives me crazy. But anyway, I loved to wrestle and roughhouse as a kid and I wasn't a boy.

My 8 year old sister is really hyper and peavish so of course she loves beating me up.
So she just pounces on me and I have to fight her off lol she's vicious.

my youngest two absolutely love to rough house. their daddy fights with them like that all the time, literally throws them around, onto the couch or bed.

for my youngest, he is also very sensory seeking and needs that deep pressure contact on a regular basis. so the rough and tumble serves as more than just fun play for him. we do have to be cautious with him tho because he will get too excited or simply not pay attention to his actions and doesnt realize how they affect others. he also has an instinctive fighting style, and has on more than one occassion hurt his dad or i. "get off your brothers head" is actually a common phrase in our house

I have a different experience - my daughter hated rough and tumble play, hates tickling, being lifted up and spun around. Indeed she hates almost anyone touching her body in this sort of way. I wonder if it is a gender difference here?

My guess is that it's also sensory issues, of a different kind.

My husband likes to pick me up. I'm slowly learning to tolerate it. I am very body defensive in many ways. It's an issue when I partner dance, because I want to hold myself further away than I should, don't like it being "dipped" and so on.

Wrestling time with Daddy is a ritual part of every morning at our house. It is basically all about fulfilling DS's sensory needs. The OT even recommended that we do this. The way the OT described it was to make sure that DS gets his sensory "cup" filled up before he goes to school and he will have an easier time. It works. We started doing it as a means to get him to put his clothes on - "You can wrestle with Daddy for 5 minutes then you have to get dressed". It worked so well that he will now get dressed mostly by himself and then wrestle with Daddy afterwards (he's 41/2 and until a few months ago we were pretty much still dressing him every day).