As 2026 gets under way and the global news is grim, I find myself reflecting on the summer holidays, despite the weather being somewhat challenging, it was wonderful to walk the beach watching people young and old just enjoying life.

I saw lots of beach cricket, footy, volleyball, or just ball throwing , lots of splashing about in the sea and many children on their own, with siblings or parents building things out of sand. Lots of laughter, and cheering and time just enjoying life absent of the day to day pressures.

It was the sand castle creations that caught my attention. They ranged from full on castles created from a mould with an imprint of bricks and turrets, through to the pile of sand scooped together by little hands decorated with shells and seaweed. It was these simple creations that warmed my heart. Nonetheless, whether it was an elaborate castle or the little organic collections of things placed thoughtfully on a pile of sand, both embodied joy and other essential elements of play.

We are communal animals – but we also are individuals. In play we can develop both of these biologically essential human qualities. The ability to play on one’s own is built on being a part of a loving community. Whether that be a family, a neighbourhood, a school etc. By ‘loving community’ I don’t mean a community who forgives all, but one that supports both the individual and the rights of the whole. A community that has the courage to support a child (or for that matter anyone) with not always getting everything they want. Helping children to learn to managed disappointment recognising both their talents and limitations can all happen in play.

Knowing you can soothe your disappointment is an antidote to anxiety and fear. It’s okay for a child to cry their way to acceptance that they can’t have the toy that another child is currently playing with. This simple common situation develops the building blocks for managing the many much more significant disappointments that they’ll manage throughout their lives. We can’t be happy all the time. Relying on other people to make your life work creates a person who wants power without responsibility.

Through play we learn to manage and process complex human dynamics in situations that don’t generally have serious consequences. There is a freedom in play that broadens relationships.

Resisting the need to over organise is a challenge. Setting some parameters can be helpful to get a game or activity underway. Knowing when to let it develop into its own thing can be tricky. The few conflicts I witnessed were when one member of a group needed to follow the rules and other participants weren’t all that bothered. Or the opposite, one member didn’t want to follow the rules that the others had agreed upon.

Once absorbed in play there is a shifting of consciousness we become lost in a creative endeavour. This is such an important process for our wellbeing, and is an essential part of our human-ness. It’s a quality all mammals exhibit, especially the young, when they are well enough loved. It’s an important neurological process and when it’s not supported there are emotional consequences. The most important, I would argue, being the ability to plan and picture outcomes and possibilities. When we feel under time pressure or impacted by some sort of trauma it’s often our opportunity to play that is curtailed. If play is too prescribed or structured this also does not achieve the goal of developing or maintaining abstract thinking.

Fear or an absence of courage often impacts our ability to get lost in playfulness. This is a dilemma because playfulness can be the antidote to fear and it can also give us courage. Boredom is also an important phenomenon that will often result in play that is very creative (often messy) especially when children are involved. We have become a little allergic to boredom but in that question: ‘what am I going to do now?’ a little gem might be sparked in the empty space.

I’m not sure if it was my imagination, but I’m sure there were less people sitting on the beach under cabanas scrolling on phones. I can’t help asking if this is an unexpected outcome of the social media ban that we are all reducing our dependence on social media as entertainment.
Possibly the cost of living crisis possibly also contributed, luckily for us here in Australia we can go to the beach for free, and a beach regardless of the weather can provide endless entertainment and opportunities for play.