A Wider Worldwide Day of More Playful Play

The Worldwide Day of Play is October 2nd. It's a project of Nickelodeon - yes, the kids' network itself. According to the Parents Guide to Let's Just Play, Nick is so much putting some of its money where part of its mouth is that there are even grants available for non-profit fun.

"Why play?" you ask. "The state of play for kids in America has reached a stumbling block. Today, they live in a world with reduced resources for recreation in schools and communities, trash talking in sports and a general stress in their lives, which are all threatening to take the fun out of play. Over the past several years America has seen a double-digit decrease in the amount of time kids spend being physically active. It’s no wonder that the national obesity rate is reaching epidemic proportions. It goes without saying that if kids are to have the best quality of life in the present and the future, they need to PLAY now! Nickelodeon is committed to putting PLAY back into the forefront of kids’ minds by elevating the VALUE of play for everyone."

This is all very wonderful. But it makes me wonder. Do we really need to be putting play BACK into the forefront of kids' minds? I mean, isn't it there already? Isn't that the one clear privelege of childhood for play to be pretty much always forefrontal? What else makes me wonder are, of course, the games that Nick suggests: relay races, red rover, freeze tag. Kid-appropriate, for sure. More playful than sports.

I know I'm being overly critical here. It's a wonderful thing that Nick is doing, and I applaud it with significant enthusiasm. But, well, if I were part of this initiative, I'd want it to be so much more delightfully junkly, if you know what I mean. Kids could be making up their own games, even. Games that the whole family, junior, mom, dad (whose in a wheelchair now), and even grandpa can play. I mean, it could have been so much more worldly, as it were, involving so much more of the world, of the people and their planet if Nick had exchanged the wacky (their forté) instead of the o so traditionally competitive.