Member-only story
Why Isn’t it Normal for Adults to Play on the Jungle gym?
The case for play in a world where people grow out of having fun
Back in October, my family and I went to the park. Nothing unusual there, we have two young children and go to the park all the time.
But there were a few things that made this park different.
First of all it was a park we had never been to. What happened is that we were going on a fall adventure to a pumpkin patch about 50 miles away and left early, only to find out that it didn’t open until noon.
Having some time to kill, we searched for someplace for our kids to stretch their legs and recover from an hour in the car.
Another thing that made it slightly different was that my mom was with us.
We ended up finding a park with some really unusual play structures.
Pretty soon I wasn’t content just watching the kids play and I hopped on myself.
Before you knew it, my wife and my mom had joined in and we were all playing “don’t touch the lava.”
It was a lot of fun and used a kind of tactile kinesthetic creativity that I don’t often get the opportunity to enjoy.
