back to top5 Comments to “Child’s play”

1. BY kBells 10.12.07 AT 9:16 AM

   In the old days kids had siblings, cousins they saw often and neighbors you could trust. My only child sees his cousins only on holidays and I haven’t been real happy with some of the neighbor’s kids. He has recently been snubbed by them for reasons I can’t figure out. So, I have to play with him a lot when I really need to be cleaning house. Might be why we’re being snubbed. However, taking him to the park and letting him just make friends and go crazy is a break for both of us. I take a book. We all do the best we can under our circumstances.

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2. BY Bob Buckles 10.12.07 AT 10:12 AM

   From the article
   “Chudacoff makes the mid-17th century sound like our own time, only better. “Adults were much less self-conscious about what types of play were appropriate for different age groups than would be the case by the time of the American Revolution,” he writes.”

   Solomon said that there was nothing new under the sun.

   I choose Solomon. I don’t think people were any less self-conscious about the games they played then or now. Few people are willing to look foolish, or childish.

   Some people like this age of child and some like that age. Me? I like my adult children a lot better than when they were teenagers. Grandbabies in diapers? Yuck! And the scream? I have to force myself to only put them in time out in another room.

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3. BY VS 10.12.07 AT 10:18 AM

   I think there might be too much self-consciousness and too much self-analyses.

   Why is it “too easy” to be the moderate B student? That is the most sensible isn’t it?
   Moderation – in all things.

   Totally ignoring the need for play time with the kids is a sign of a self-centered adult but being their constant playmate makes for a self-centered child who will then turn into a self-centered adult.

   We make things more difficult than necessary with all of our hand-wringing and worrying about things like this.

   Personally I like the Infant-7 age range! Teens? Not so much.

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4. BY krm 10.12.07 AT 5:59 PM

   VS – My wife loves the up to teens agee and then goes crazy. I go crazy until the teens years. I guess we were lucky to be complementary that way.

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5. BY Pauline 10.12.07 AT 9:05 PM

   #2 “Few people are willing to look foolish, or childish.”

   Bob Buckles,
   I agree that people have probably always been reluctant to look foolish or childish. But it could be that in prior ages people did not think that playing children’s games made them look foolish or childish.

   I was more afraid of looking foolish and childish when I was a child than I have been as an adult. I always preferred being with adults or at least older children, and considered the children my own age “beneath” me. I didn’t want to play their silly games and get excited about the silly things that they got excited about.

   I didn’t make a very good babysitter, of course. I had no idea what to do with children younger than myself. I tried to play with them, but had no real idea of how to go about it. (Fortunately some of them were very patient with me and did not seem to mind my awkwardness with them.)

   When I was a camp counselor (at age 18), I entered wholeheartedly into everything with the campers (in our counselor training, enthusiasm and involvement were heavily emphasized). I played horsey, with little girls taking turns riding on my back, until my knees were raw. I hid so well when we played hide-and-seek that no one ever found me. After ages hiding under a canoe, hot and sweaty and dirty and tired of ants crawling all over me, I finally got out and discovered that the entire camp had gone on to another activity.

   When I became a parent I found a better balance. I have no trouble playing kiddie games, but I have learned that my middle-aged body won’t do everything it used to either, so I don’t try to get down on the ground much, and when I need to do work or have some time to myself, I am not afraid to tell my son it’s time to stop.

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