By guest host Jane Clayson:

Mothers and fathers, your heads have got to be spinning.

You’ve been told your children will grow up emotionally empty drug addicts or worse if you don’t get on the floor with them and play with their trucks dolls and trains. That they won’t grow up smart or competitive enough if you don’t buy them educational toys and take ‘em to soccer practice.

Well, historian Howard Chudacoff has studied the history of childsplay in America –and the one thing he found among rich, poor, city or country kids was that it’s always been about getting away from the grownups.

This hour n Point: How do the children play, when we leave them alone? And is it time to leave them alone?

Guests:

Howard Chudacoff, Professor of American History at Brown University and author of “Children at Play: An American History”;

David Lancy, Professor of Anthropology at Utah State University and author of the foprthcoming book “The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings”

Stevanne Auerbach, author of “Smart Play, Smart Toys: How to Raise a Child with a High IQ.”