Kids' games are grown-up fun

Angela Allen shimmies her hips, all smiles and confidence, and looks around the room.

One by one, her competition stumbles until, finally, Allen is the last one left on the dance floor. Without breaking a sweat, she easily wins the hula hoop challenge.

From Twister and Taboo to musical chairs and Simon Says, scores of games are being played in the cavernous ballroom at the Holiday Inn Select in downtown Atlanta. Yet, this is not a kid’s birthday party or play date.

This is the adults-only, 4-year-old “Play Date Atlanta,” which is drawing record numbers during the recession, with as many as 500 hipsters showing up around 10 p.m. on a Saturday night to sip cocktails and play games into the wee hours of Sunday. The twice-monthly event is held at different hotels around town.

“When I was little, I used to hula hoop so much that my grandfather eventually removed the beads because of the noise,” said the 38-year-old Allen, wearing a name tag that said “Ga Peach.” “This brings it all back. It’s just so hilarious. I laugh and laugh and laugh. It’s the best feeling.”

Many adults are getting in touch with their inner child as a way to combat the stress of the dour economy. They are joining meetup.com groups to play co-ed flag football or dodgeball. They are roller skating and setting up balloon tosses in their backyard.

Traffic at All American Skating Center in Stone Mountain is up by 35 percent since the recession, according to owner Jack Burton. Meetup.com said adult members signing up for kidlike games has more than doubled in the past year. Almost 200 Atlantans expressed interest in a dodgeball group that’s still in the planning stages.

And membership in Ernest Evans’ co-ed flag football league has swelled from 87 to almost 500 recently.

“I played quarterback in high school and still do,” said Evans, who is 40. “It’s comforting and relaxing, and it’s a big de-stressor. Even though I am yelling to say ‘catch the ball,’ I am smiling at the same time to be out there.”

For Quincy Robinson, who recently graduated with an MBA from Georgia Tech and faces the daunting task of landing a job, skating provides a fun way to combat stress and use up nervous energy.

“I remember growing up and being able to walk to a rink and skate all day,” he said. “That’s not something you forget. There are times now when you come out of the rink and you don’t even realize just how exhausted you are. Your legs feel like noodles, and it’s that feeling you get, a mixture of exhaustion and satisfaction.”

J. Kip Matthews, an Athens psychologist, said games can serve as pleasant distractions. When money is tight, Matthews said, families who might have splurged on a movie out begin to seek in-home entertainment.

Laughter, he said, has the ability to reduce the levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline in the body while boosting mood-enhancing chemicals such as serotonin.

Kathleen Hall, an Atlanta-based stress expert, believes game nights are great, but she said adults should find ways to weave playing games and being silly into their life every day. At work, she suggests, employees should take a little break every four hours to play a game like darts or shoot a few Nerf basketball hoops.

And games frequently don’t require a lot of skill or ability — just a little strategy and luck.

“When you are playful, your brain absolutely loves it. ... Think about all of the stress and the stuff happening and, after work, we are this chemical soup,” Hall said. “But, the minute you get playful, that chemical soup changes. And that playfulness is one of the greatest things you can do to protect yourself from stress.”

At home, Hall said, parents should play with their kids every day and be spontaneous about it.

“When you are cooking dinner, put on some music and dance around the kitchen with your kids,” she said. “Play is not a luxury. We were created to play. It’s not something you do on Saturday and Sunday. It’s something you have to do every day.”

Back at the Holiday Inn, it is close to 2 a.m. and the ballroom is still packed with gamers. Two men play chess. A group plays Jenga, stacking wood as high as 3 feet.

And then there’s Antonio Wade, 30, and his friend David Thompson, 29. Wade spent most of the night playing Spades and musical chairs. Wade challenged a string of single women to Dominoes.

Now, they head over to the dance floor where a Cinderella-like game has begun.

A group of guys must find the rightful owner of an abandoned shoe. “This is fun,” said Thompson, who works as a juvenile counselor at a residential treatment center.