Jack Plays!

Jack Plays

I recently interviewed one of my wisest friends, two-year-old Jack. As Jack zipped around wearing a towel-cape and “flying” a paper plane (complete with sound effects), I asked him what he had done that day. 

“Jack play,” he answered.

“What did you do yesterday?” I asked.

“Jack play,” he responded.

“What will you do tomorrow?” 

“Jack play!”  

Jack has planned a perfect life. Just play. In today’s high-pressure and hurried society, time for play is often sacrificed or eliminated. Recess loses out to academic preparation for high-stakes tests. But according to studies by the American Academy of Pediatrics, play (or free time for older children) “is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth.” Play is missing in many children’s lives. Between lessons and enrichment activities, many children have no time for simple unstructured play.

Unstructured free play supports creativity, brain development, and social interaction skills. According to the AAP, play helps children explore the world, practice adult roles and conquer fears, as well as develop new skills and confidence in their abilities. Children playing together learn to share, negotiate, cooperate and resolve conflicts. Active play enhances physical health.

So what is keeping children from playing? Many times it is the adults in their lives. Powerful marketing messages warn parents that unless provided with educational toys or enrolled in enrichment activities their children will fall behind. Fearful of short-changing their children, parents outsource play to professionals. 

Another play-stopper is technology. Static-hours are spent being passively entertained by computers and televisions. Fear also factors into limiting play. Can play be safe without adult supervision? 

Children look to parents for role models. They see hurried, intense adults, forsaking free time to work just a few more hours or answer a few more emails to move just a few more rungs up the ladder of success. Stressed and over-scheduled adults love their children but lack time to spend with them. 

Adults, worried that children will lack the skills they need for future success, limit the very thing most likely to help them develop into fully-formed adults — play. The AAP states that while no one knows what skills will be needed for future success, engaging in free play develops “certain character traits which produce children capable of navigating an increasingly complex world….” Play helps children develop “confidence…honesty, generosity, decency, tenacity, and compassion… all traits of resiliency [found] within a home in which parents and children have time together to look to each other for positive support and unconditional love.”

How can parents add play back into their family’s life? The AAP advises that “some of the best interactions [between parents and children] occur during downtime — just talking, preparing meals together, working on a hobby or art project, playing sports together or being fully immersed in child-centered play.” Take a walk to the park, build a backyard fort, put on a cape and save the world. Stay home. Avoid screens. Be, silly. Be together. 

After our interview, Jack drafts me into his air force. I grab a few blocks and build an airport. Jack safely lands his plane and grins. His life’s plans are set. Play and be happy.