John Avison: Grandson’s unique hide and seek style
HIDE and seek is one of the earliest games a youngster learns.
Its underpinning attraction is that it is a way for children to deal with their inmost fears in a safe and non- threatening way, child psychologists will tell you.
You turn your back and get involved in counting, and meanwhile all your friends disappear.
You don’t want to appear needy, but your role in the game is to try to find your runaway pals.
Don’t worry: when you’ve found them, it’ll be your turn to symbolically reject someone else.
The second fear hide and seek helps you overcome is being all alone in a small, secret and often dark place.
This turns somebody ‘finding’ you into somebody ‘rescuing’ you, though it’s as well not to admit it.
My grandson Charlie is 21 months old, and I can tell you he is not old enough to play hide and seek, whatever the psychological benefits might be.
He, his mother and I tried the game out last weekend in a stand of beech trees.
He got the adults hiding bit and braved it out while grandad and mum took turns to vanish.
But when we offered him a turn to hide he wandered off and stood with his back to us in front of a tree, hands over his eyes.
The principal here is: I have my back to them, and my hands over my eyes, so it stands to reason they can’t see me.
It was all my daughter and I could do to avoid howling with laughter.
Now that really WOULD have damaged him psychologically.
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