Children at Play

Children at Play

It’s been years since I played with my trucks and Lincoln logs along the hedge line at the old house on Baylor street but watching my grandchildren play has brought back a lot of old memories and in a good way.

One of the most evident things is that toys were much simpler back then and today’s toys are engineering marvels not even thought about in my day. The other big difference is the reliance on electrics to inspire play but even with all that the kids still play with the cardboard box and the packing materials that come inside.

Now don’t get me wrong, children still play and to a great extent still play the same way that we did in the 50s but they are a smarter more in tune bunch than I think we were back then.

I can watch my grandchildren play and enjoy in their activity as much as if I were doing it myself but they each play in such different ways.

On a recent sleep over in Jordan’s room, Maddie, Abby and Jordan were sequestered behind closed door playing dolls with Jordan’s Barbie collection. The room was strewn with doll clothes and other parts of the Barbie Diamond Castle, horses and carriages and clothes, lots of clothes, and there were all the dolls, stark naked. It was determined through this ritual that Ken, the male Barbie doll, was to go to work sans clothes. Isn’t it interesting that when boys play with Barbie she is generally topless? Man, we didn’t have those options with trucks and Lincoln logs. But this sisterhood of the Naked Ken was a time so well enjoyed by all parties and as an adult I was amazed how kids that really didn’t know each other that well could interact on such a level with no fighting or arguing, sharing equally and all of them having a good time.

Now Noah is a different matter. He is noisy, rambunctious and generally calling out to someone for some type of information about something. Even his parents aren’t particularly good at interpretation on this two-year olds vocabulary but he is passionate about whatever he is speaking about. He is a little more eclectic on his toy choice as he goes from hither to yon and then back again, to the toy box retrieving toys just screaming for attention to be dropped on the floor and summarily dismissed. But there is no denying that he is full into playing with everything while he is at our house and that is ok with me and grandma.

And then there is Peyton who is just learning the freedom of the floor and the art of rolling everywhere to get where she wants. Seeing her struggle to get a toy on the floor where the other children are now lost to such effort makes me stop and see where we have all come from and where these children, God willing, will all someday go.

For as we grow we still play, as teens with that first love and the playful days of courtship and even into marriage the playfulness changes into a more intense set of rules into adulthood and the playfulness with our children that does not seem so playful to them at times to middle age with growing children and learning the art of being young again so that we do not repress their burgeoning spirits and allow them to continue their art of continuing playfulness with the people in their lives to old age and sitting in a chair and watching all of the essence of life being relived again in front of us in the play of our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to watch my children and grandchildren grow and I look forward to the future of more grandchildren and maybe even great grandkids some day but I do not want to lose this time.

My grandchildren make memories for me that are so vivid to me of their joy and anticipation and that gives me hope for the future and that is a good, very good thing to have in my life.