Play Does Have Limits

As a child, my friends and I played in the woods, and we often found things like old tires, rusted scrap metal, and broken glass bottles. It was fun playing with these objects, further damaging them in order to create something totally new. My friends and I always had fun; however, our play was often disrupted and limited. When a few kids argued whether or not a tire should be further ripped up, people’s feelings got hurt. Some kids fought verbally or physically, causing someone to run home crying. On other days it wasn’t rare for our play to stop due to an injury. Bloody hands due to broken glass, scrapes and bruises from climbing trees. Although it would seem that these actions limited our play, it was really our social interactions with one another that stopped us. Because we saw someone in distress, we realized that our play was no longer purely enjoyable. Essentially, play has limits that vary from person to person and depend on how we perceive our social environment. I think that if everyone is happy in a situation, then play can take on any form. Once someone becomes upset, play has reached its limit in that moment.