Stream-of-Consciousness Free Associations on "PLAY"

In Praise of Unstructured Play

Raising an Unhurried Child in a Hurried World: An interview of David Elkind

We live in accelerating times. A long-standing advocate for insulating our children from some of that is David Elkind. 

Elkind is the author of the classic book, The Hurried Child: Growing up too fast, too soon and 18 other books. He has appeared on The Today Show, CBS Morning News, 20/20, Nightline, and the Oprah show.

On PsychologyToday.com, I post my interview with him .

Child's Play

I had coffee with two fellow career counselors. In the course of conversation, I said, "Let's each take one minute to tell each other the things we most enjoyed doing when we were children."

I said:
-- Looking out the window hoping it will continue snowing so school will be closed the next day.
-- Lying on the grass, watching the clouds move.
-- Practicing basketball by myself, learning to dribble as well with my right hand as with my left.

You know, although I haven't done those things in almost 50 years, I think I'd still enjoy doing them. Maybe I'll do them.

What did you most enjoy as a child? Would you like to do them again now?