how did you deal with recess at school?

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I hated recess with all its noise and the demand for interaction. I dreaded it. Now I realized I should've just gone out in the backyard, which I did at an early age but stopped later. I should've gone back to it.

how did you deal with it, and did you dread it too? What was it that bothered you?

I played on the equipment and ran around and did jump rope and played with teatherballs. As I got older it changed because of kids teasing me, my friends rejecting me, me being alone and I was having a hard time relating to them because all they wanted to do was chit chat than play.

I used to visit the school library.

Stood with my back against the School wall and observed the behavior of others.

I often would muse about the foolishness/immaturity/recklessness of the other children(mind you I was also a child....)

I did not feel as though I was one of them, even though I obviously was of the same age cohort.

I despised the silliness of youth, even when I was a pre-teen.

Generally, I was wrestling with existential questions when a ball would roll my direction, and I awkwardly(and self-consciously) would throw it to the other student. (monitoring the force required, trajectory, overhand vs. underhand, etc....)

I remembering asking the teacher when recess would end....I just wanted it to END.

when we were younger this was not permitted.
as soon as it was I went to the library every time

I had some good friends in school and then some acquaintances, who were more like the average kid.

I was bullied by the rough kid who came from another school but I had my group of friends, we had fun in recess.

I spent most of my recesses on the swings, unless the teacher forced me to participate in a kick-ball game or something (nothing like the experience of being picked last, to build youthful self-esteem).

In High School I just waited outside, or in some common area during lunch period and paced, read or smoked.

omg recess was fun. I used to play tag with the other kids and I remember I was a lot faster then everyone else. We used to play kick-ball as well but I was so uncoordinated. I didn't develop my coordination till my teen years.


There was no recess is middle school or high school. Dangit.

I remember when I was younger I use to purposely forget my trainers or hide them, which meant that you weren't allowed to go and play. I prefered that because it meant I didn't have to be alone, which then would draw attention to me and get bullied more. I did the same for sports because I hated being in teams, or picked last, or getting bullied for being slow. I liked it when it rained because you got to stay inside and that meant I could read or draw or something. When I was older I use to go to the library too, or just walk about hoping time would go by quickly.

In elementary school, I'd just sit against the wall and read. Once in fourth grade, a teacher approached me and said, "You can come off the wall now," thinking I was being punished, then when she got closer and realised I was reading she said, "Oh, you're reading. Why don't I hold your book for you and you can go and play with the other kids?" I didn't know her, and interacting with strangers made me extremely anxious, so I just did as she said. I walked off and wandered around the playground until the bell rang.

In middle school I actually had a friend, so we'd just walk around the football field together and talk.

I laughed when I read this. The overwhelming similarity to myself struck me as amusing. Sorry.

It pleases me to hear of your response.

If you can't laugh at yourself, et al.

I spent recess on the swings if I could get one. Sometimes I would sit on the dirt banks and use sticks to dig up rocks. Sometimes I would go behind this really cool tree that had four or five trunks and two or three stumps--it was like a natural kitchen, or alchemist's den--unless some MeanGirls (TM) were already there.

Once in a while I would try the rings or the bars, but even when I made it across I got painful friction burns on my hands, and I'll never forget the time I fell flat on my belly and knocked the wind out of myself.

Other kids would either ignore me or laugh at me most of the time. There were a small handful of girls--one at a time--who would play nice at the dirt banks or tree stumps with me, and it was nice to feel like maybe I had a best friend for a little while.

But always someone would come along and my friend would like that other someone better and leave me playing alone again.

I didn't like recess much. If there had been a go to the library option I'd have probably gotten a Vitamin D deficiency by spending recess at the library every day.

In the early grades I loved recess. I didn't like to play with the other kids, though; I just liked to walk and run around and think and dream. In grades 5 and 6, I actually had friends to hang out with, which was sometimes fun, but I often got bored. In the later part of grade 6 and grades 7 and 8, I was alone again, but by then I was more self-conscious about walking around stimming, so I got really bored during recess and prayed for it to be over. I preferred indoor recess, where I could just read.

I used to go from person to person playing with whoever would include me. When I ran out of people, I hung out on the swings alone. I eventually got to a point where I was teased pretty relentlessly. From that point, I started hanging out inside reading.