At certain times a day, there is so much traffic that it seems like it will never stop. Endless rows of cars driving on the street, people hurrying on the sidewalks and loud voices filling the air. The so-called rush hour is one of the most stressful times of the day.
Trying to find your place in the chaos of our day-to-day life, is what you can experience in the following game. The instructions are very simple and easy to remember, making “rush hour” a fun game, suitable for almost every age group and especially younger children.

What do you need?
The only requirements for this game are chairs and players. The number of chairs should equal the number of players minus one, f.e. if you are eight players, you should have seven chairs.

How to play?
After setting up the circle with the chairs, one player has to be selected to stand in the middle of the circle. This person does not have a chair. All the other players then take a seat in the circle. The goal of each player is to be seated on a chair but since there are not enough chairs for everyone, there will always be one person that does not have a chair and is therefore standing in the middle of the circle. The only way the player in the middle can find him-/herself a chair is when someone else stands up. This happens when two of the players that are sitting in the circle make eye contact. Once they look each other in the eye, they both have to stand up and switch seats as fast as possible. If the person in the middle is faster and takes a seat in one of the chairs, the person that was supposed to sit on that spot becomes the new person in the middle and has to try to find a new chair.
Since this game is called “rush hour”, it is all about speed. Whoever is not fast enough and can not catch up with the rush hour, is the one being left out and has to try to find his or her way back into the game/ life.
There is no final or official end to the game because it repeats itself until you and the other players do not feel like playing anymore. In case you want there to be a defined ending, you can also set a timer for a certain period of time and once the alarm goes off, the player that does not have a seat at that moment lost the game.

In some ways, “rush hour” describes our reality. The players, especially the one in the middle, always have to be alert in search of a new seat and everyone is running around trying to reach their destination. This might make you realize that this hurry is not something that should be part of your daily life and you can remind yourself to take some steps back and enjoy life on its own.

I hope you enjoy this game and have fun playing!