UNDERNEWS: The daily news service of the Progressive Review, Washington's most unofficial source The intrusion of adults in children's play can abolish or diminish this process of acting above one's age and acquiring self-mastery of one's own actions. Paradoxically, children exert more self-control in imaginative play than they do in real life, where their behavior is less conscious and more reactive. With adults, children tend to be 'childlike' because of their subordinate relationship.