We are busy. Our children: busy. Our grandchildren: busy. We are busy providing our offspring with comfort, experience, and social and academic skills - and yet many parents still fail to provide their children with the most important asset of all: play. Piggyback Rides and Slippery Slides calls for loving caregivers everywhere to improve the well-being of children through the simple art of play. As you create memories with your children, you will provide them with the skills they need to succeed in life - skills like empathy, problem solving, impulse regulation, assertiveness, and creativity. As research demonstrates, children who have learned how to play are better prepared academically, socially, and emotionally than their busier, "more accomplished" peers. And as you spend time playing with your children, you will discover that spending time together is the magic ingredient to trust, even if that time is spent just feeding ducks, flying a kite, or enjoying blueberry pancakes on a lazy Saturday morning. Lynnae W. Allred received her BA in humanities from Brigham Young University. For the past twenty years, her career has been motherhood. She and her husband, Garth, have five children. She has served in local and council PTA leadership positions, and received the District Award of Merit for her service to the Boy Scouts of America. Her volunteer work with children also includes many years of service in ecclesiastical assignments for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where she recently served as Stake Primary president (the Church's auxiliary organization for children).