ABSTRACT
This chapter centres on the author’s own observations of his two children, Nicholas and Reuben. It explores Reuben's earliest games, the Mummy with dummy game, peekaboo, Nicholas 'teaching' Reuben to play. The chapter also explores parents 'teaching' their children to play, using games to deflect criticism and get away with naughtiness, using games to coax children along, obscenity in play, pretending and sequences of play. It looks at the thinking on the pretending of very young children and what that tells. Traditionally, studies of laughter have seen children always as responsive, not creative. Second, any analytical view would highlight not the transitions between being responsive and creative in laughter but the nature of the material the game is about. The chapter concludes with a discussion of whether certain kinds of parents try to raise their children to be 'playful' and whether such a strategy is healthy and can succeed.
