Ball Pits and Bouncy Castles for adults? Bring ‘em on, we say…

Ages and ages ago, we wrote a blog post following up a magazine article about adults enjoying kid-like things.

The topic’s poked its head up again recently, via a piece in The Guardian: ‘Ball Pits and Bouncy Castles for Adults: Good Clean Fun or Desperate Nostalgia?’

This was followed up in various places – our favourite being a related segment on Radcliffe & Maconie’s 6Music show entitled ‘things you did as a kid that you wish you could do as an adult.’ (Notable submissions: throwing a massive temper tantrum in the middle of a store; telling your boss ‘bagsy not me’ when they ask for somebody to undertake an unpopular task).

On the great ‘ball pits for adults’ debate, I guess we might be expected to dismiss the trend and urge you all to go home to play board games instead. But actually, our official position is to say OH BLIMEY THAT SOUNDS LIKE LOADS AND LOADS OF FUN GO FOR IT YESSSSSS!!!

‘Desperate nostalgia’ indeed. We doubt there’s a parent alive who hasn’t stood at Farmer Fred’s Adventure Play Barn and secretly wished all the little ones away so they can throw aside their shopping and rush off to zoom down the yellow slide.

It’s tempting to overanalyse stuff like this. But from the perspective of a bunch of grown adults who spend much of their lives play-testing kids’ games, we think it’s not really that complicated. It’s just – y’know – stuff that’s fun. Everybody needs fun, whether you’re seven or seventy.

Our conclusion: bounce away! And we see loads of proper grown-up people playing our kids' games, via the miracle that is social media. So if you want to take Og on the Bog into the office to decide who gets to make the tea, then we are behind you all the way. (Send us a photo…)