Some Serious FunAnn Hulbert talks with readers about the value of kids' playtime.

Contributing editor Ann Hulbert was online at Washingtonpost.com on Thursday, June 21, to discuss the benefits of children's playtime. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

Ann Hulbert: Good morning, everyone. I'm Ann Hulbert, here to answer your questions, and hear your thoughts, about children and play, the subject of a "Sandbox" column I just wrote. Thanks for joining me.

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Southern Maryland: How do you incorporate play for teenagers? Our child volunteers at her favorite sport spot, which is a meeting place for her friends to sort of practice and mostly talk. Parents have graciously sponsored pool parties, and what goes better than water and kids of any age? Outside of these activities, what else can I do? I do see a lot of kids unable to play because they are not physically fit or aerobically fit, slim and overweight kids. We are fortunate that we have a nice playground in our neighborhood.

Ann Hulbert: It sounds to me as though you have an enviable setup. Your daughter's mixing volunteering with peer mingling—and she's not at a shopping mall! From what you say, I gather there is some supervision, but your child and her friends are busy with their own volunteering activity: again, a great blend. Having a circle of parents who are eager to host gatherings of teenagers is a lucky situation to be in.

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Whittier, Calif.: I enjoyed your article and believe we are the last generation given the freedom and safety to spend the summer running all over the neighborhood and playing pirates with the hammock and the tree house. As an educator, I hear too often about kids' self-esteem being low and how I am to incorporate yet another strategy, which studies show will be the magic bullet to raise their feelings of self-worth. I wonder what the relationship is between play and self-esteem? I will try to log on in time to read your responses to others' questions.

Ann Hulbert: I know what you mean about feeling that there are all too many strategies to be mastering as a parent. I think we're sort of beyond the wave of obsessive emphasis on raising children's self-esteem. There have been all kinds of studies exploring the various benefits—social, cognitive, emotional—of kids' play, mostly focusing on younger children. Not surprisingly, they're not conclusive, but researchers have suggested plenty of positive outcomes: that play helps boost school readiness, primes kids for literacy, can help them in group activities. Success in any of those realms, I bet, makes kids feel pretty good about themselves.

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Washington: Hi Ann. What are your thoughts regarding the freedoms of American kids compared to kids in other countries? One of the readers wondered what kids could do in their spare time, aside from swimming in a pool or going to a supervised party. The fact is, in America, probably not much else. But in Europe, Japan, even Canada, they have a lot more freedoms.

Ann Hulbert: I'd be very interested to know more than I do about how kids in the countries you mention spend their free time. I wonder if you're suggesting that the American hyperconcern about children's safety hems in activities here more than in less alarmist cultures. But I'd say that even here, there are more than pools to entertain kids outside: parks, zoos, bike rides (even bowling, puttering in backyards, for those who have them.

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washingtonpost.com: "They were not yet totally at the mercy of the hovering gaze of elders; the new panoply of approved toys could be used in inventive, unapproved ways. You could say that paternalistic preaching left room for subversive practice." You suggest that greater subtlety of today's youth marketers have undermined this, but won't kids always find ways to subvert their parents' playtime will? Won't they always create new, transformative uses for even the most cleverly designed toy?

Ann Hulbert: I think you're right, and that is a central theme in one of the books I refer to, soon to come out, Howard P. Chudacoff's Children at Play. Still, I think there is a way in which the more scripted games kids play on the computer, and the toy tie-ins, complete with TV program back stories, arguably lend themselves less readily to kids turning them to their own uses. I'd also say that an ever more intensive supervisory ethos does tend to mean that kids are totally on their own less often—at least not alone without a TV on in front of them. Getting lost in their own pretend worlds is perhaps harder—there's less down time in which kids do that—yet I agree, it's also what most kids find ways to do, no matter what.

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Washington: What is your opinion of what Richard Louv has termed "nature-defecit disorder," with kids suffering from not spending enough time in natural surroundings? Is this a true problem for today's young generation, or more like nostalgia for adults' own childhoods at play in nature?

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