As a child I could play for hours. Barbies, tea party, building a fort, hide and go seek, building miniature cities in the sand, even raking the leaves into play houses where we allowed our imaginations to run wild. I’d play alone, with siblings, with friends. Didn’t really matter who was there, there was always something to play.
play is necessary for kids and adults
As I grew up play became replaced with piano practice, homework, and part time jobs. A strong work ethic was instilled in me by my hardworking parents – work before play. Finally I went out into the real world where play took second place to making a living, paying the bills, finding a productive way to contribute to society.
Play is often seen as child’s work – something for them to do to get out of the adults way and occupy themselves. Play, however, is a profoundly important aspect of human development and intelligence. From our earliest memories play was when we explored ourselves and our world. Where we roll-played in order to make sense of it all. Our curiosity was allowed to fully discover the world through imaginative play. Social play fostered emotional development and expression while we learned problem solving and people skills.
None of these expire as we age. In fact, as adults the need to play is just as vital. For many of us play is often the motivator for life. Truly play is serious work and vitally important to what we do and who we are.
There is a great talk by Stuart Brown on TED Talks which examines how necessary play is to our lives. As we integrate play and work we become more creative, more emotionally involved, more alive.
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”
Have you played today?
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