All Children, Everywhere
August 17, 2013 2:29 AM Subscribe
What habits, rituals and games are universal to children across cultures?
Walking along a street recently I noticed a small boy, walking alongside his dad, who was waiting for his father to get a few steps ahead of him before running and jumping to land in his father's shadow. It struck me that running and jumping to land in a particular spot is a universal game that children seem to play all over the world without ever having to be taught by adults. There are variations of this game: jumping into the moving shadow, skipping a particular step in a flight of stairs, or always jumping over a particular spot (when I was a child, we had an Alsatian who did a massive shit in the passage of our home, leaving a horrible beige stain in the shape of Africa that I used to jump over. Those were good times).
Have you ever been in a different culture and noticed children's habits, games or rituals that reminded you of your own childhood or children in your own culture? I'm not talking about things that are taught to children, but the ones they seem to develop instinctively.
Walking along a street recently I noticed a small boy, walking alongside his dad, who was waiting for his father to get a few steps ahead of him before running and jumping to land in his father's shadow. It struck me that running and jumping to land in a particular spot is a universal game that children seem to play all over the world without ever having to be taught by adults. There are variations of this game: jumping into the moving shadow, skipping a particular step in a flight of stairs, or always jumping over a particular spot (when I was a child, we had an Alsatian who did a massive shit in the passage of our home, leaving a horrible beige stain in the shape of Africa that I used to jump over. Those were good times).
Have you ever been in a different culture and noticed children's habits, games or rituals that reminded you of your own childhood or children in your own culture? I'm not talking about things that are taught to children, but the ones they seem to develop instinctively.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Hey, sorry, but this seems more chatfilter, in the sense of "I'd like to discuss this idea," rather than a problem to solved. -- taz
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