Jan. 14, 2025- Andy is in OurLittleCorner today

Things about Hide-and -Seek that I’m Glad I Didn’t Know as a Kid

Anyone who once was a kid, which I’m guessing includes just about every adult I know, should be familiar with “Here I come, ready or not” and “olly olly oxen free.”  I’m sure I don’t need to explain that these are part of the childhood game of hide-and-seek. My earliest memory of the game is from when I was about 5 years old and my older sister would grudgingly let me join in with the neighborhood kids.  How I loved that game!  And I must confess that even years later I would relive the thrill of hide-and-seek with our own kids and after that with our grandkids.

I had always considered hide-and-seek to be a simple, spontaneous, and very fun kids game.  But I’ve recently discovered that it may not be as simplistic or as innocent as I had supposed (and I also discovered that it is “olly olly oxen free” and not “olly olly auction free.”).

To start with, hide-and-seek has existed for as long as there have been children around to play games. According to Wikipedia, hide-and-seek is “a very ancient and instinctual childhood game” that has been documented in Greek writings dating back to the second century AD.  “Then as now, it was played the same with one player closing their eyes and counting while the other players hide.”

That it is an “instinctual” childhood game and a part of “human nature” has some scientific credibility.  In 2019 researchers published findings that rats not only can be taught to play hide-and-go-seek but they play the game for just the fun of it (that is, without using food incentives). If you are wondering how in the world they could have known that rats were having fun check out this Science article (though I was a bit disappointed that the researchers failed to report whether or not the rats learned to correctly say “olly olly oxen free”).

And, of particular interest to me, the Science article discusses how the findings support the theories of one of my favorite cultural theorists, Johan Huizinga. Huizinga tells us that to be true play it must be voluntary, be internally motivated, have no material rewards, have rules that are different from our everyday life, and most importantly, be fun.

Sadly, at least sadly in my opinion, hide-and-seek is being usurped by adults and it is slipping away from Huizinga’s notion of play. Witness the International Hide and Seek Championships played in Italy not long ago. These are not little kids spontaneously playing a game. And even worse, consider that hide-and-seek was proposed as an event for the 2020 Olympics (fortunately it never happened).

But what bugs me most is the adultsplaining that goes on regarding hide-and-seek. At the hands of “child developmental professionals” (most of whom I assume are adults), hide-and-seek has become either the poster-child of kids games or a hazardous pastime with the potential for permanently scarring young minds.

Advocates of hide-and-seek consider it to be the panacea of all kids games. For example, on the website childsplayinaction.com we are given an impressive list of fourteen reasons why we should encourage kids to play hide-and-seek. Among other things, the game improves working memory, helps kids take the initiative, teaches them flexible thinking and how to plan and prioritize, fosters independence, and provides physical exercise. Shirah Voomer (an MD no less) posted on psychologytoday.com that children love hide-and-seek because it provides the satisfaction of going out to explore on their own with the safety net of assurance that they will be found. In short, “hide and seek reassures children that people in relationships can separate and they can come back together.”  I could go on with other examples, but you get the rosy picture.

On the flip side of the coin are the hide-and-seek detractors. A google search asking if there are any negative effects of the game yielded this sobering AI summary

One of the most adamant opponents of the game is a therapist named Alexis who refers to herself as a “Reflective Repatterning Advanced Therapist,” whatever that means. On her web page (clearyourheadtrash.com) she wastes little time showing her anti hide-and-seek bias when she states, “Hide and seek could actually be bad for your mental and emotional health. Shocker, right?”

She relates instances shared by female clients who while playing hide-and-seek as kids had not been “found,” either because they’d been forgotten, or a sibling had played a joke on them. She suggests that such intense emotional experiences can have a lasting impact. “These are events are like mini traumas which means they can feed things like anxiety or fear as long as they are still in place.”

Reflecting on these adult pronouncements about the benefits or hazards of hide-and-seek has solidified my belief that adultsplaining should be banned from the sport. I firmly side wth the lab rats and Johan Huizinga that the intrinsic value of play is that it is fun and rewarding for its own sake. If we adults encourage kids to play the game to increase their motor skills or so they will be better able to cope with separation, we are losing sight of the point that the joy of play should be an end in itself. The same goes if we warn kids about the pitfalls and potential dangers of the game. I know this sounds trite, but maybe it is best if we stand back and let kids be kids.