Little Girls Still Play Inside

As a child I played outside for hours every day. I climbed on the backyard jungle gym, played red light, green light in the street and caught minnows in the creek. I played inside as well, building wonderful houses for my Barbie dolls and Trolls, fixing tea for my Chattie Cathy and dressing and undressing my Dolly Darlings. Outside I was a Tom Boy, the alpha leader in charge of all the game rules and team choices; inside I used a soft voice and held my dolls close as I rocked them. Today I still have my outside Alpha Patti that gives speeches and my inside nice girl Patti that cuddles the dog and listens to loved ones talk about their day. Today girls still play mostly inside in small spaces, in small groups or in pairs. The center of a girl's social life is a best friend. Within the group, intimacy is key. In playing house there are no winners or losers. Girls playing mommy can give orders but they are not comfortable giving orders in any other play role. Girls are more likely to say, "how about doing that?" or "lets do this " and boys say, LET'S DO THIS, OF ELSE!","give me that" or "get out of here."(Funny) For girls it's not about jockeying for status, it's about being liked. For example, when my godchild is playing with her girlfriends, they have to reach a consensus on what they're going to do. If most of them want to go out on the swing and one little girl does not want to, then there's a problem. In fact, popular girls have status but research shows that even though other girls want to be liked by the popular girl, the popular girl is paradoxically disliked and called stuck up.