“Scaffolding is important.” Russ has found that if a parent “models” a bit—pretending a red Lego is a fire engine, say—the child is more likely to pursue the play and pretend on their own.

As a mom myself I believe it's OK to want to skip time in our kid's world of make-believe. Here are a few reasons why we shouldn't feel guilty about it.

In a behavioral lab, mother-child pairs played together for five minutes trying to solve a 3-D puzzle and then spent five minutes of "pretend play" with toys and stuffed animals.

But what’s often missed is this: play strengthens parent-child relationships. In Kitengela, Anne Mwende, a single mother of one, has learned that play can ease even the toughest days.

Because playing pretend isn’t just a game.“I think it helps [kids] open up their imaginations,” says Della Allen, who runs Fantasy Kingdom, a Chicago playland, with her husband, Mark. At Fantasy ...