WHERE DID RECESS GO? A Brief History of the Dissipation of Adult Playtime — and how to reclaim it. 💪

Disclaimer: In the spirit of playfulness, parts of this article will be written ….  in magenta 🙌  for no reason other than it’s fun. (oh and rainbow emojis shall be used at random).

🌈🤔 Thinking back to our childhoods, our main focus of every single day was to play.

As babies, our job was to cry, pee, eat, sleep, repeat, spit up, and smile big. When we were toddlers, scooting around, propping ourselves up, sprouting a tooth or two and getting down in our diapers were the things to do.

Then we hit kindergarten and elementary school where we lived for recess, we peed our pants from laughing so hard 🌈  and the weekends were jam-packed with games of H.O.R.S.E. and kick the can.🐴

But then as we got older, somewhere in there …. we stopped playing.

Why?

Here’s a quick chronology of the “Whoops” events we believe contributed to the eventual dissipation of play in the everyday adult experience.🌈

Whoops #1 | AGE: 23

We got busy and we forgot.

Neglecting play and becoming more serious started feeling like the natural progression of “growing up.” It’s not that we meant to neglect play — it just sort of started slipping through the cracks.

Whoops #2 | AGE: 28

We started believing play was a luxury.

We started equating our worth with how much we accomplished. Play was something to be earned or deserved.

Whoops #3 | AGE: 31

We started believing play was unprofessional.

We believed most of the things we were doing were not the “time and a place” for play, when 👆 FACT — it’s possible to inject play into everything we do. Play can be a state of mind rather than a noun or a verb.

Whoops #4 | AGE: 33

We thought that maybe play time was selfish and did little for the greater good.

👆 TRUTH BOMB: Play is an outward expression of our inner joy 🌈, and it has amazing impact when shared.

Whoops #5 – 75 | AGE: 35 – 80

We thought that playing wasn’t cool.

👆 TRUTH SERUM: The cool factor of an adult who plays increases immediately the second they turn on the playful. Wasn’t the “cool mom” the one who believed fairies lived in the backyard woodpile? Isn’t the Tinder date that brings you on a scavenger hunt through the city the one who scores a second date?

Let’s Get Back To Recess.🌈 

Ok y’all.  How will you flip the script on “play”? On our end, we’re gonna keep dancing…

#morningmischief