Parents don’t hear that plaintive question at their front doors very much anymore, because kids are too busy glued to their computer screens to go outside. I can’t remember the last time I saw a kid riding a bike or I had to slow down to drive right through the center of a stick ball game in the street. You never hear about baseballs crashing through plate glass windows anymore. These things annoyed me at the time, but now I miss them.
And even if you grew up in an era when you did get to ask that question quite a bit, you learned quickly that after the age of about 21, it becomes increasingly harder to get your friends to come out and play. The older you are, the more you become bogged down with responsibilities. “I can’t come out and play today because I have to earn a living.” “I can’t come out and play because then who will watch the kids?” “I’m just so tired. Maybe next week.”
Trust me people, if you die tomorrow, your last thought isn’t going to be, “Damn, I forgot to wash the dishes.” If you have regrets, they’ll be about the things you didn’t get around to doing with friends and family.
I’ve reached a point in my life where I want to play again, but there’s really no one to play with. No one fits my whacky schedule. Everyone is busy, broke, exhausted, content, lethargic, or overwhelmed. And that’s probably the loneliest paragraph I have ever written in my life.
[Image credit: quickmeme.com]
The View from a Drawbridge 
It’s hard when you are an adult to play. Like you stated we all usually have other responsibilities. It’s sad really. We DO need to play more. Hope you find someone to play with.
Thank you. So do I. 🙂
Breakfast with a friend can go a long way to ease the pain. I have two friends of many years, and we get together 3-5 times a year. just a few hours, but so precious to me. Once in a while our Husbands come. Not as sweet. But our children all grown, youngest in CA, so don’t get to see her and 7 yr old Grandson but once a year, the other three live within 10 miles, but Our Grandchildren are all over 20, no longer come! and so we don’t get to see the G’Grandson, except a few times a year. And the children are so busy with their lives. Finally when we have all he time in the world, to enjoy them, they are not around. Remember the song, “Cats in the Cradle”? But next time I come down your way, I’ll meet you at The Crazy Egg… If you can come out and play. OK?
Sounds good to me!
My mother used to say, “Just when you girls started to get interesting, you left home!”
Oh yeah… you tell ’em…
Testify!
preach
So true! And depressing!
Oh no! In India, too? One of the complaints I hear from Indians who live here is that Americans don’t know their neighbors, so I had hoped that you were still outside and interacting there.
We go out and socialize – but the concept of ‘play’ is alien. We study from the time we are 3 or 4 and we keep studying (even on Saturdays) till we work. And then we get into work so heavily till, well, forever almost. For 2 years of my life, I worked 7 days a week, 14 hours a day till I realised, WHAT am I doing? The adults I work with, it is a constant reminder that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to laugh and have fun and just be child like/
Wow. I’m exhausted just reading about it. I’m glad you aren’t doing that anymore.