Monday, December 31, 2007

Parallel Play for Adults

You've probably heard about the concept of parallel play which is when 2-3 year-old children play side by side with little or no interaction. Well today, I think I have experienced adult parallel play.

My wife and son and I met up with another couple who have 2 young children. As we sat at Nichol's, a local diner, for breakfast, each parent was fully occupied attending to the children: feeding them, containing them, and preventing them from grabbing and spilling the food and drink on the table.

I think we were at breakfast for about an hour and probably got 15 minutes of conversation in among the adults. And 10 of those fifteen minutes were talking about the kids! The other 45 minutes: adult parallel play.

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