But after spending a few seasons on the sideline, watching their parents have fun, many children are suddenly showing interest in the game, Betz said. This year, he expects at least 150 children to turn out for a new youth division.
Cory Abate-Shen, 41, of Warren, New Jersey, cited a tinge of nostalgia as one reason she tried to teach the playmates of her twin six-year-olds, David and Philip, to leap through hopscotch courts, shimmy in hula hoops, and chase each other around the lawn in games of tag. Most kids, she said, need her direction, but once taught, "they can immediately adapt and get into it."
"You're going to see a real revolution," she predicted, sounding a bit like a Thomas Paine of retro play.
Nevertheless, some critics believe that children best fire their imaginations and hone social skills when left alone to make their own fun.
Geoffrey Godbey, a professor of recreation at Penn State University, said the idea that parents can revive old-fashioned play is contrary to the spirit of play. He blamed "boomers who want to do it themselves again because they never grew up."
His advice? "Let the kids go."
But Sara Boettrich doesn't want to. The Rochester, New York, mother has tried to exhume the old playground games of her own childhood, like seven up — which involves bouncing a red rubber ball against a wall. "I used to love that game!" Boettrich said. "My friends and I would play that for weeks."
But when she tried to pass it along to her daughter Lydia, eight, and Lydia's friends, she found that she was the one who was most spirited in bounding around on her driveway. The children followed along only as long as mom was there to supply the enthusiasm. Afterward, they tended to return to their video games.
Boettrich admitted that she hadn't seen the kids playing seven up, pickup sticks and jacks, and that she had since abandoned her attempts to spark a love of them in her daughter. She added, "I think I had more fun than she did."
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