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Kathleen's avatar

This is all true, but what is interesting is that I find that my kids get more unsupervised/loosely supervised free play at their siblings' Little League games than almost anywhere else. They don't get it as much in neighborhoods anymore, but at games, much like in the neighborhoods of old, it's not so much that no parents are watching as that they all are - a little. Groups of mixed-age kids making up their own fun on the sidelines, under bleachers, on unused fields. Rolling down hills, scaling fences to get into places they weren't supposed to be, but not like REALLY REALLY not supposed to be. I brought books to keep my youngest occupied - could I ever have guessed that he and his friend would have invented the game of "book hiding" and played it every week, or that if they did choose to read, I wouldn't have to read to my non-reader? An older friend read for him, or they sounded out words together, which would have required pulling teeth at home during homework time. At 5, spending the better part of a 2-hr game out of my sight because home base is a certain group of rocks or under a given tree, but also because there are other parents around who I trust to intervene if something really goes off the rails. At our Little League fields, the oldest kids even show up - on bikes, sans parents - an hour or more before their games start to hang out, watch the younger kids play, etc. Their parents do come watch games, but those kids have plenty of unsupervised time first.

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Shawn Gallagher's avatar

This is spot on. I would add to informal play some anecdotes from my high school experience. We played pick up basketball all the time. If nothing else was going on...we always had basketball, 3 guys or a dozen. There were 4 courts by the campus that we went to all the time. High school kids to adult men, shooting for teams, playing with/against each other. As a 16 year old, playing adult men and interacting and working out problems with them gave me confidence and improved my game. The interactions though were extremely helpful as a 22 year old in the workplace, interacting with older males. That was the power of sport.

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