Older children and play

Last week, when I felt as though I had barely time to turn around, somehow I found myself cleaning out the toy closet in the loft. It was definitely one of those "If you give a mouse a cookie" moments. K. mentioned that he really wanted to get out the fall books, since we hadn't changed the picture books in a while. This caused to me to actually look inside the toy closet where the books are stored as well as toys. (Well, this would have happened regardless because I needed to collect some toy horse stable items for my Mom and Tot horse class the next day. K. just got me there a little sooner than I had planned.) There are some moments that you look at a drawer or room or closet and realize that you cannot do another thing until you deal with the disaster before you. This was one of those times. We emptied out the closet, did a little rearranging, got rid of toys that no one plays with anymore, and put it all back to rights so that the items inside could actually be accessed. In this process we uncovered a bag of pretend food which I had been saving for R., because as L. informed me, "None of us wants to play with it anymore." 

Those were pretty much famous last words because over the weekend, there were a couple of times I passed through the loft to discover K., G., L., and Y. happily playing some form of store of restaurant with the previously disdained food. I wasn't paying that much attention, but it all seemed to be a fairly complicated scenario they were involved in. It made me both happy and amused.

Now, for the record, K. is 15, Y. is 14, and G. and L. are 12. I realize that what is fairly common behavior here is not common behavior at all for many other children in this age group. In fact, it is probably exceedingly uncommon. I have watched this phenomenon with my older, now grown, children as well. They and their friends would happily play long extended pretend games through their early teens. Space and time to play has always been an important part of family life around here and no one gives it a second thought. 

I sometimes wonder if, because my children are not submerged in a traditional school culture with its incredibly strict age segregation (which, if one is oh so terribly worried about socialization, this should really be considered) if my children are not acting as a sort of 'control' for what a typical child would do without undue outside interference. Would most children continue to play late into childhood if they had the time, space, and weren't worried about appearing too young or babyish? 

I don't know what game my children were playing with that pretend food over the weekend, but I do know that the snippets of conversation I caught, the content was anything but babyish. It seemed far more appropriate to their ages and development. The play only lasted a couple of day, but there seemed to be some sort of need that it filled, then, having done its job, disappeared again. 

I also sometimes wonder if the majority of children were allowed, both by society and by themselves, to play out their current concerns if we would see the toxic level of child mental health that we currently do. 

Just a thought.