Leave those kids alone: The idea that adults should be playing with their kids is a modern invention -- and not necessarily a good one

If interactions with babies are rare in much of the world, "mother-toddler play is virtually nonexistent," Lancy writes.

NVDL: Interesting article, although I think teenagers probably need a certain amount of attention and listening from parents.

clipped from www.boston.com WHAT COULD BE more natural than a mother down on the rec-room floor, playing with her 3-year-old amid puzzles, finger-puppets, and Thomas the Tank Engine trains? Look -- now she's conducting a conversation between a stuffed shark and Nemo, the Pixar clown fish! Giggles all around. Not to mention that the tot is learning the joys of stories and narrative, setting him on a triumphal path toward school. A "natural" scene? Actually, parent-child play of this sort has been virtually unheard of throughout human history, according to the anthropologist David Lancy. And three-fourths of the world's current population would still find that mother's behavior kind of dotty. American-style parent-child play is a distinct feature of wealthy developed countries -- a recent byproduct of the pressure to get kids ready for the information-age economy, Lancy argues in a recent article in American Anthropologist, the field's flagship journal in the United States.