“Play is the work of the child.”

Maria Montessori, Fred Rogers, and Sigmund Freud have all been credited with saying that statement. I’m going to agree with those three and go a little further: play is the work of everyone.

We need to play. Children need to play most of all.

I have a kid who is playing with… give me a sec… paint… still need another deep breath… on our dining room table. Without a safety net. This kid is almost a full grown adult and as such she disagrees with her mother quite frequently. It’s all very developmentally appropriate and yet. And yet she is painting on the table without any table protection.

I don’t know when I turned into such a Type A person. No wait, I know. It’s when I became responsible for all of the messes!

“Play is the work of the child.”

“And the adult.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go do something to distract the inevitable paint-filled mess that is my kitchen.