In this eighth issue of the Journal of Playwork Practice, Reesa Sorin and Miriam Torzillo (pages 97-116) explore different conceptualisations of play and childhood. They cite Ginsburg’s (2007) concern that the benefits of child-driven play are becoming limited by the fast-paced lifestyle of industrialised society. Rick Worch’s work with monkeys in Uganda shows a remarkable parallel. In the wild, play occupies over 30 per cent of a young leaf-eating monkey’s daily activities and as little as 2 per cent in a young fruit-eating monkey’s daily routine (Worch, 2002). When controlled for the number of potential playmates available to the leaf-eating and fruit-eating monkeys (that is, group size), immature leaf-eaters played four times as much as the fruit-eaters. Why? Perhaps it is the behaviour of adult monkeys, just as in humans, that can limit and bring about opportunities for play. The leaf-eating monkeys spend much of their day in the same tree, with adults gorging on leaves and resting and socialising while the leaves digest. The youngsters can engage in hours of uninterrupted play. The fruit-eating monkeys, however, spend two times more of their day moving through the canopy in search of fruit. For safety, these youngsters are compelled to keep up with the group, resulting in far fewer opportunities to play. Thus, play is more likely to occur when monkeys and humans have a slower pace of life and everyone has more time to relax, socialise and play. Although our pursuit of the ‘golden apple’ can result in many benefits for our children, it is having a negative impact on our children’s ability to engage in child-directed play.