Child Depression and Anxiety due to No Play-Time

  In the article "All Work and No Play: Why Your Kids Are More Anxious, Depressed" Esther Entin explores a professors five main causes and effects of children having no free play-time to themselves. In the article the professor says that "Since about 1955... children's free play has been continually declining, at least partly because adults have exerted ever-increasing control over children's activities."
  This article includes quotes from professors and the author themselves. Entin also cites data from surveys and researchers. One fact that stood out to me was "As children negotiate both their physical and social environments through play, they can gain a sense of mastery over their world." This was a statement that stood out to me because it could be true due to it saying that basically if the child gets to play and gets to control their emotions and the environment that they do better and can master their world on to a new level. This shows that play time to children can be really beneficial to them.
  I think that play time to children while they are still young and developing is really important because they get to experience self-independence and get to be in their own world with their own rules. Many parents may not know that their children need play time to develop because they are so focused on the future and aren't focused on the present.
  This article made me think that parents can sometimes be quite oblivious to what their children really need and want in their life. Children don't want someone who plans every second of what they're going to do everyday. Parents do have some control over what their children do but that some can turn into always. The parents should be the one to give the child that free that they need in their life since for most of their life they are going to be in school. I wish parents could see and take action on what their children need to fully develop in their young lives.