Tantrums can be fun

 



Another bit of play-learning that Anya's doing was a bit more unexpected. Yesterday morning we brought her to bed when she woke up, something that she always enjoys. But amongst the giggles and fun, often when she was lying down she would throw herself into a sort of mock tantrum. She'd roll around with looks of distress and delight flickering on her face, grinding her forehead onto the pillows and flinging her arms around like some 18th century actor playing Antigone, or a baby version of the Laocoon. But she wasn't actually upset: she seemed to be having a lot of fun.

I've always been attracted by the idea of play as essential to development. By making the most essential types of learning enjoyable, evolution has ensured that animals do learn skills rather than sit around doing the biological equivalent of watching daytime TV. But I suppose I had always had an unconsciously positivist view of this: children play so they can learn nice things that adults like, such as building block towers, giving gifts of flowers and talking.

In retrospect, it's blindingly obvious that the play instinct is robustly self-interested. Evolution wants the baby to learn anything that's useful to it. And whether you're needing an overdue nappy change, or trying to get your point across in the supermarket about how much you want daddy to buy chocolate biscuits, tantrums can be useful.