Connecting with your inner child, healing your inner child, whatever you want to call it; if you’ve been anywhere vaguely wellness-related in your life, you’ve probably been encouraged to do these things, even if how you’re meant to do them isn’t always clear. Fortunately, one “adult kindergarten” makes it incredibly easy to connect with your inner child by letting you go back to school, because the first time wasn’t bad enough, apparently.
“Big Kid Kindergarten” describes itself as an “interactive play experience for grown-ups that asks us what we’ve left behind.” Participants are encouraged to connect with strangers through crafting and playing, and their website explains that the organization is “researching third spaces for adults.” They offer in-person events across the U.S. as well as events over Zoom and workshops for organizations looking to foster team-building.
Videos on the group’s TikTok account show adults doing arts and crafts, playing with building blocks and stuffed animals, and making new friends. The kindergarten was founded by Soleil, an early childhood educator with a master’s degree in education who took everything she learned from her time teaching young children and decided to apply it to creating a space for adults because she found that “as an adult, we don’t really have spaces where we can just come together and play” the way kids do with summer camps, after-school clubs, etc.
Much has been made about the decreasing number of third places available once you leave school. Sure, if you drink, there are bars and pubs, but what if you’re sober? Other options include coffee shops (they usually like you to buy something if you’re going to spend hours on the premises), bookstores (same deal), churches (only an option if you’re religious) and community centers (sure? I guess?). But by and large, a lot of people, particularly post-pandemic, are feeling increasingly isolated and increasingly desperate for connection with other human beings, and the lack of viable places to hangout makes it that much harder for some.
While things like the “Big Kid Kindergarten” don’t appeal to me as a skeptic with minimal interest in arts and crafts or engaging with my inner child, there does seem to be an audience for it, based on the number of events they’ve hosted and the amount of positive feedback they’ve received on social media. There are countless comments from people who were profoundly moved by the group’s TikTok videos, with one person writing, “I’m crying at the thought of just talking and making friends with other adults the same way I did in kindergarten with the other kids.”
I wish all adult kindergarten participants luck in their quest to find viable third spaces and make new friends; I, however, will continue to hang out at the bar.
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