Is parent-child play an unnecessary modern invention?
According to anthropologist David Lancy, parent-child play has been virtually unheard of throughout human history and only a quarter the world's population actually play with their children today. He believes that child-care experts promote adult-child play too aggressively, making parents feel uncessarily guilty if it is not an activity they actually enjoy. Writer and mother of two, Sophie Hannah, and Bernadette Duffy, Head of the Thomas Coram Early Childhood Centre in Camden, join Jenni to discuss David Lancy's findings.
The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings by David Lancy will be published by Cambridge University Press shortly.
