Rejuvenile by Christopher Noxon  
 

09.01.06 news flash: moms kick!

Time Magazine recently did a feature on moms who play soccer or hockey or skateboard or otherwise imitate their kids? athletic routines. Seems the number of “mom leagues” has shot up in recent years, spurred by mothers who’ve gotten sick of sitting on the sidelines watching their kids play. Playing the same games as their kids “gives them a window into their kids” experience, a shared language and a new way to bond.?

The story is like so many other articles about adults who reclaim kid —  common tone is uniformly gee-whiz, isn—t-this-wacky, with the occasional cynical aside about overinvolvement or the pathetic spectacle of adults playing kid games.

After reading literally hundreds of these stories (and writing a few myself), I’m beginning to wonder: when will the news value finally dissipate? When will we start taking it for granted that moms can of course play soccer or hockey or even rock paper scissors? True, adult leagues devoted to kidgames are still unusual enough to warrant attention and analysis, but isn’t the novelty wearing off fast?

I for one am looking forward to the day when moms and dads all adults are free to play any game we like without raising an eyebrow. When we reach the point that an editor rolls his eyes and barks “old news!” when a reporter files a piece about grown-up devotees of Duck-Duck-Goose, we will have finally demolished the last of our arbitrary age norms.

Posted at 9:05 am in Fun and Games | 0 Comments

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