The Lost Art of Play

A UK report looking at how parents play with their children has found that 21% of parents have forgotten how to play with their kids. The survey of 2,000 parents and 2,000 children conducted by Prof. Tanya Byron, a psychologist and child therapist, also found that childhood games are under threat from parental overwork and an emerging generation gap.

Almost 1 in 3 parents now play computer games with their kids, but 9 in 10 kids would prefer to play alone. Despite this, 7 out of 10 kids would rather play with their parents outside or engage in traditional games with their family.

One especially worrying finding to my mind is that the ‘experts’ feel that parents now need to be given official advice and direction (from TV celebrities and ‘Childhood Tzars’ I assume) about how to play with their own kids.

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