How To Ramp Up Hide and Seek To a New Level

When I was a kid, we had a really cool babysitter named Cathy. She made it so fun to have a babysitter, we couldn’t wait for the next time we got to see her. She was the daughter of friends of my parents from way back and was about 12 or so years older. She even made bedtime fun. When it was time to “hit the sack” she stood at the beginning of the hallway that led to our bedrooms and held out a grocery bag, and we lined up as far across the house as we could get. Then she yelled Hit the sack! and we went charging through the house, past her holding the grocery bag, and we’d whack that thing as we went by then continued on to our beds. We dove under the covers, and once there, after we’d “hit the sack,” we knew we couldn’t get up again.

​On a visit one day with our family to see Cathy’s whole family, my siblings and I got to hang out with the “big kids” while the parents visited. Cathy had a sister and two brothers, and they indulged us little kids. At first, we just hung out, talking a little, catching up. Then we started goofing around with this life-sized rubber hand they had laying around in their basement. Before long, we had a roaring game of “hide the hand” going on. “It” hid the hand, placing it in some creative location, the hand performing something unexpected, and then the rest of us went searching for it. It was bendable and flexible, so it could do all sorts of amazing of things. We found it hanging on the toilet flusher handle, and coming out of the laundry hamper. Coming out from behind, it held onto the corner of the frame of an enormous painting on their wall, and it clawed its way out of a ceiling light fixture. We had a blast together, playing a game that entertained across the age gap.
 
Another family my parents were friends with lived on a farm. We played hike and seek with their kids at night out in their cornfield, with the fireflies and starry sky. What a fun way to play the game! When my kids were four, I remembered that creative hide and seek with the hand, and the nighttime version of the game, and wanted to do our own game of hide and seek with a little more pizzazz. I decided we’d play it by hiding in places much more elaborate than behind a door or under a coffee table, as four-year-olds are want to do. While “It” hid his or her eyes in another part of the house (and we might have utilized shooting muffs and a blind fold) I put the kids in places they never could have hidden in on their own. All the Tupperware was suddenly shoved into a nearby box and someone got inside the kitchen cabinet. The dirty clothes got dumped behind the bed and someone went into the newly emptied hamper. They each got a turn up in the closet too. As I put them there, I reminded them not to move, make a sound, or give up their location until “It” found them. They did a great job of staying put and still (especially for four-year-olds) and not a single one of them fell out and broke their arm! It was a successful day!