Let’s pretend…

I’ve been brought back to my childhood recently, through numerous trips to the park with my girls, because all the kids, still play all the same games that they did twenty years ago. Most commonly, that neverending game, “let’s pretend…” .

There is so much on social media at the moment about how the youth of today don’t get out in the fresh air and rely on their minds alone for entertainment. That we had better upbringings before smart phones and interactive gaming. It’s all doom and gloom, but in the summer time, I think you can really appreciate that that analogy is not entirely true. That children can still appreciate walks, beaches, parks, sports and making games up out of thin air. Despite all the computer games and technology kids have these days, make-believe is still rife. And that makes me smile.

Games start with “let’s pretend” and the entire game (which can last hours) consists of every sentence starting with the word “pretend…”. Each child acts out their own little daydreams and tells the other children what they are thinking, doing and seeing, until they are united in one big game.

The most common of these (in girls at least) still seems to be “mums and dads”. I remember nobody ever wanted to be the baby, because all you had to do was sit in an imaginary cot and say “goo goo” or pretend to be asleep.

Playground objects become pirate ships, fairy castles, war zones, ponies and shops. Everything you could ever want, is a hands reach away – invisible of course, but if you can imagine it, you can touch it.

It’s funny as an adult, seeing these same games played through different eyes. As a child I could imagine endless scenarios and everything around me became a part of that pretend world. As an adult… You can see nothing there, but what is really there.

Children have incredible imaginations and its so lovely to see how they develop them through play.

It’s lovely also, to be jolted back to my own awesome childhood, every now and then.