When I remember what play was like growing up, I had played at my grandmothers house. I had cousins there and we played outside all day, whether it was playing war, playing beauty pageant, climbing trees or cleaning up and making a game out of it. My grandmother wasn't the one who would play with us, but it was at her house that we would play, it was our uncle who was our care taker. We would play outdoors, never indoors.
My parents didn't play with us as I remember, but they did buy us toys such as the easy bake oven and the snow cone machine, as I remember. My sister and I loved to cook and eat, so a lot of activities we did involved food. Crazy enough, we don't enjoy cooking as adults.
When I think about play and my teen years, I don't recall too much play, because it was about growing up and doing cool things, the closest things, like roller skating, going to an arcade, swimming pools, water parks, amusement parks and as I think about it, it involved money.
What I lacked as a child was the adult interaction, it is completely opposite now, I have played with kids as a type of employment and I play with my own kids all the time. I have seen the difference between myself and my children and what it means to be a child and the importance of play. I had to explain to parents the importance of play and how it helps the children develop and learn skills when they get older.
Today, children still get to play, there are a lot of styles of play, whether it involves video games, board games or outdoor play. Parents are involved with their child's play. Also with today's society, play isn't so much gender specific, their are construction toys for girls, their are dress-up clothes for boys. Society seems to be on board with the importance of play and how it affects children into their adult life. Play is important, as an adult I love to play and there is a feeling of being free and stress-less when I play with my kids or even the kids I work with.
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