In pursuit of happiness: Teaching parents to play with their children

The pursuit of happiness is widely acknowledged as a basic human impulse, so much so that wars have been waged over the concept, its necessity has been written into constitutions, and it has formed the basis for what many consider to be the American Dream. In some ways, in child psychiatry, this concept is at the heart of many of our encounters with patients. Children who have attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder develop negative self‐image as a result of negative feedback from others; teenagers with depression suffer from unrelenting negative cognitions that sabotage their sense of self. At a very basic level, their ability to pursue happiness is being threatened. However, as a discipline, child psychiatry has not developed a way of talking about how to hone the skill of “being happy.” What does such a practice look like, in concrete terms? How would we go about teaching such a practice to our patients, who are often quite vulnerable, in multiple senses of the word? Given that our patients often come to us in the midst of very stressful and difficult circumstances, how can we shift our perspectives and theirs, to include not only ways of thinking about improving dynamics that are not working for the family, but also thinking about how we can bolster families' strengths? One way to do this is by talking about the importance of thoughtfully cultivating the practices of laughter and joy with parents of young children as a way to strengthen attachment, improve self‐esteem, and nourish peer social networks.