Who decided playing was something we were supposed to outgrow?

Kittens can easily find something to play with. It can be a toy, a piece of paper, a bug, something moving under a blanket. That’s enough. We tend to expect that playfulness from kittens because they’re little. Of course they want to play! But sometimes we get so used to connecting play with childhood that we forget how much we still enjoy it as adults.

I notice it when I get together with friends and someone brings out a game or suggests trying a silly challenge. We can be sitting around talking, and then we’re paying attention to the rules, watching everyone’s turn, and getting excited about winning or doing the challenge right. I might have been thinking about leaving soon, but now I need another round. I’m having fun. 

There is research that gives me another reason to make room for this. In a study on adult playfulness, some adults spent a week doing exercises like writing down three playful moments from their day or finding a new way to be playful. The exercises increased playfulness and had short-term benefits for well-being. The study looked at building a playful attitude in everyday life rather than testing one particular game. So it can include more than sitting down with a board game. It can start with a joke with a friend, a silly challenge, or finding a way to make an ordinary task more fun.