Member-only story

When Was the Last Time You Played?

Who says play is just for kids?

Wendy Miller
5 min readApr 13, 2021
Photo by: Foxy Dolphin via Canva

How many times did your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, babysitters, or even your friend’s parents tell you, “Go outside and play?” If you’re anything like me, it was a lot! And if it was raining or there were other reasons not to go outside, it would just be shortened to, “Go play.”

As a parent myself, I also know how often I said it to my kids. But even now that my kids are grown or nearly grown, I still tell them to go play.

The importance of play doesn’t end when we reach adulthood. Play remains a vital way to stay young and young at heart. Play is important at any age.

Play is a wonderful way to distract us from our busy lives. With so many things tugging at our time, it’s easy to forgo play for responsibility. This leaves little time to explore, create, and use our minds in valuable ways. Though we get older, it’s important to keep play a part of everyday life. We can all imagine the benefits of play for children, but many of those benefits still apply to adults. Consider these facts:

Play improves memory and preserves the mind

Play can help stave off mental decline and keep our minds sharp. Learning new things, expressing ourselves in creative ways, and engaging in…

--

--

Wendy Miller
Wendy Miller

No responses yet