Mother, mother, how far can I go?

Mother, mother, how far can I go? is an old children's game . As a typical street game , it was organized by children in the neighborhood themselves and played in courtyards, on green spaces or on the street. It can now be found again in instructions for children's games outdoors for the age group from 5 to 10 years.

course

The children's group of 5 to 10 children designates one child as the mother . Two lines opposite each other are drawn with chalk or marked in some other way at a call distance. The mother stands behind one line, all other children opposite her behind the other. The object of the game is to be the first to reach the mother's line . This child can then take over the position of mother in the next run .

One child after the other calls out: “Mother, mother, how far can I go?” The mother can now determine according to her own taste: “three steps”, “none” or “five steps”. They can also call this in further subtleties, such as For example: "one big step", "two small steps" or "four triple steps" or "one giant step forward, one mouse step backward". Before the child is allowed to do this, it has to ask again: “May I?” To which the mother can answer with “yes” or “no”. If a child forgets to ask this question, it must go back. It takes a small number of passes for a child to reach the finish line. In between, the children stop at the position they have reached. The prospect of first place can change again and again.

variants

Variants in the name of the game are: Mother, mother, how far can I travel? Kaiser, Kaiser, (or King or Father), how far can I go / travel? or ... how many steps can I take? ... how many steps do you give me, do you give me?

In more recent game variants - described in the pedagogical context - the aggravation that the child has to ask again whether it is really allowed to work, usually no longer appears. Instead of specifying the steps, there is the variant that the mother names a place and the child is allowed to walk as many steps as the place has syllables, i.e. Ba-sel or Bux-te-hu-de.

meaning

What is striking about this game is the absolute power of the mother, with whom the children playfully deal with, because she alone determines who wins. This position of power is balanced by the fact that (ideally) every child can assume this role once. As a self-organized children's game, this requires social skills from the children's group. B. can be passed on through a slightly different age of the children.

One aspect of the game is inherent in the fact that children process their everyday experiences in play (here the absolute power of the mother or another caregiver) and, on the other hand, it can be understood as an example of performative children's culture: The children's group has to deal with each other a lot be able to regulate, endure and negotiate so that the game “succeeds”, for example so that no child is disadvantaged too much by e.g. B. never or too seldom wins that one child particularly prefers another and disadvantages another, that friendships and hostilities are lived out, that everyone adheres to the agreed rules or that there are enough children who enforce this. The mother has to be able to assess the respective frustration tolerance of the other, so that an overwhelmed child does not get out of the game offended, and she has to find the right timing in each case so that it does not take too long or go too fast until the first child arrives at the finish line is.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Werner Storz: Wir vom 1951. Wartberg, Gudensberg 2014 (10th edition) ISBN 978-3-8313-1551-2 .
2. ↑ Zurek, Adam: Can the children's game still be saved? Threat to the game and liberation in the game. In: Psychologie und Gesellschaftskritik 31 (2007), 4, pages 57–72, urn : nbn: de: 0168-ssoar-292327 .
3. ↑ Collection of games from Umweltberatung Österreich , accessed on April 4, 2016.
4. ↑ Hoppsala , accessed April 4, 2016.
5. ↑ Alte Spiele: Büro für Kinderinteressen Dortmund , accessed on April 4, 2016.
6. ↑ Children's matter , accessed April 4, 2016.
7. ↑ State Center for Health Promotion of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 4, 2016. 
8. ↑ : Sonja Feisinger rediscovered Old Games , accessed on 4 April 2016th
9. ^ Rolf Oerter: Psychology of the game: an action theory approach . Quintessenz, Munich 1993, p. 173, ISBN 3-928-03647-5 .
10. ↑ Anja Tervooren: Pause games as performative children's culture , 2001, doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-322-91361-6_5 .