Articles by the Author
Nostalgic Games Make a Comeback
with the Help of Grandparents
By Marlene F. Byrne
Founder and Author of Project Play
Many of today’s grandparents play an important, active role in guiding their grandchildren’s development, including inspiring children to play. In fact, there are 3.9 million US children living in a grandparent’s home.
With the proliferation of video games, rigorously scheduled activities and an increasing amount of indoor play, most Nannas and Papas are encouraging alternate ways for grandkids to spend their free time. They have a unique understanding that the lack of good, old fashioned backyard play can contribute to children being overweight, not being active or being stressed from over-scheduling.
"When our children were growing up, I remember the whole neighborhood being outside playing," said Ellen Farrell, a grandmother from Wisconsin. "I did not drag my children from activity to activity, and it seems they got more exercise and had more fun."
But things are different today, and that cultural shift affects how kids play and their opportunity for creative expression and problem solving. Parents are afraid of sending their children to the park by themselves for an impromptu game of ball. Neighborhood families don’t consist of seven or eight children anymore so younger kids can’t learn from much older siblings. The opportunity of playing with a large group of neighborhood kids may not be practical and kids are more segmented for playtime.
Perhaps now is an ideal time for grandparents to lead the initiative to stop and ask the questions: "What happened to just ‘playing?’" and "How can they get back to it?"
When kids play time-tested backyard games like "cops and robbers," "ghost in the graveyard," or "pitchers hand out" baseball, they learn important lessons in creativity and negotiation. These games force children to create their own fun and navigate their own set of rules. It is this initiative—this readiness to use their imaginations and creativity—that’s lacking in the opportunities children have today.
Many grandparents pitch in to take care of their grandchildren as primary caregivers during weekdays while parents work, as occasional weekend babysitters or as a combination of both. These multi-generational family ties offer grandparents the chance to pass on traditions, serve as trusted role models, and help nurture a whole generation of children.
With their wisdom and insight into the benefits of a more relaxed daily schedule, grandparents have the opportunity to help teach their grandkids many things. Plus, by encouraging grandkids to create their own fun in an unstructured environment, they remind their own children how simple, fun activities were a big part of their lives growing up.
"I look back on the days when my children played through the backyards of our neighborhood," said Mary Jo Howard of Chicago. "Those images of summer evenings or Sunday afternoons are memories they cherish."
It is important for grandparents to work to make unstructured, backyard play a priority and the possibilities are endless. It can be an unstructured play date where the kids take all the blankets to the basement to make forts. Or an evening in the backyard where their friends come with flashlights. Or maybe a "pick your own teams" baseball game at the park while reading a book on the bench.
Regardless of the activity, the idea is to foster play that demands creative thinking, imagination and negotiation among their peers—and to let the kids figure out how to entertain themselves and make their own fun through play.
A pediatrician once told me, "It’s not the kids with skinned knees that I worry about; it’s the ones without a scratch."
Unstructured play is valuable. Kids need time to round up their peers, play "kick the can," argue about who broke the rules and even scrape their knees once in a while. Our job as parents and grandparents is to get the kids playing in the backyard, to make it a priority and fit it in the schedule. Then sit back and watch—and, perhaps be there to apply the Band-Aid afterwards.
Byrne is the founder and author of Project Play, a series of lively children’s books meant to introduce nostalgic games to today’s children. Young readers are inspired to get out and play the way the characters do—by modifying the rules, coming up with new playing strategies, and supporting one another in backyard play. Each book features a different backyard game, and the series has received notable reviews by BusinessWeek, Chicago Parent, South Florida Parenting Magazine, Time Out Chicago, and many more. For more information about Project Play, visit www.projectplaybooks.com.
