How many hours a week do your kids spend in playgrounds/other communal spaces?

[SnappyCroc]

If you have young children (let's say under 10), how many hours a week do they spend playing in playgrounds or other communal/shared spaces? Is it more or less than you did as a child?

Not a journalist, honest - I'm just curious following a thread a few weeks ago about playing out.

Mine are 6 and 3, probably about 5 or 6 hours a week during school. More like 10 or 12 in school holidays.

School time about five hours a week, holidays a lot less (rural so they play in the garden, none close to us)

More than me as a child. I grew up in the middle of nowhere so I spent a lot of time outside but just in farmland and often with no other children around. My son (2) is growing up in a city so gets to go to the park Friday, Saturday and Sunday for 1-2 hours each time and nursery will often go in the week too.

I also grew up in a rural area and had very few opportunities to play in shared spaces with the exception of the school playground.

My DH 'played out' a lot as a child and pities our DC because they 'only' get taken to the playground 3-4 times a week after school (in addition to school playtimes), the local park or splash area at weekends, adventure playgrounds and other children's attractions regularly and hiking/camping in the holidays. He referred to them as 'battery children' because they're not allowed to play out with other kids without supervision (it wouldn't be safe round here). Personally, I don't think they're hard done by compared to my childhood 🙄.

Easily rectified OP, get him to take them out more 😜

Very few, zero most weeks, in playparks because there is very little a child who is a fulltime wheelchair user can access in the parks nearest to us. If I drive for an hour I can take him to a park with a platform swing that will allow him to use a swing while he is in his wheelchair.

We often go for a walk in the woods though.

Not very often as the nearest playground which isn't just for babies/toddlers is over a half hour walk away and I just don't have the time to do that during the week.

I'll suggest it 😂. I think he has visions of herding them out the door to run free like free-range chickens... practically straight onto a busy rat run 😬. And none of our neighbours are negligent parents so there won't be any other kids playing out anyway... They're mostly at the playground 5 minutes walk away!

I would say I spent near to zero time in playgrounds as a kid. Struggling to think of another ‘communal space’ of the same ilk? I mean obviously school is communal I guess but probably not what you mean. My childhood during the ages you asked about was playing at home, in the garden, with toys etc, and going to see extended family. And being bored at home ha.

We may go to a playground once a fortnight (DS 9 & 6, DD is 2 so has way more time for playgrounds and soft plays, basically her main interests).

At the weekends we will usually go for a walk if that counts as communal area (woods, lakes etc)

Its sad! But not much time for playgrounds with the shit weather and school and clubs. From tomorrow it will be the summer hols and rates will skyrocket.

Kids do a few clubs though if that counts as communal - cricket twice a week, beavers etc

@Ratfinkstinkypink . I'm sorry accessibility is poor at playgrounds near to you. There's a fantastic playground about 40 minutes for us where a lot of the equipment is accessible but the equipment in our local playgrounds is somewhat tired and dated and would also have very little to offer. Playgrounds need to up their game.

In the summer probably about 10-15 hours during term time. About 5 hours on a Saturday, then an hour or two after school. Now they are teens they are very sporty so are outside about an hour or two a day playing sport.

@BingoMarieHeeler . I suppose by "communal spaces", I mean spaces open to all where children gather to play and socialise. Ideally low or no cost so affordability isn't a barrier. Spaces where children are in charge of their own social interactions to a large extent and so make new friends/form "gangs" with whoever is there, rather than just with friends they already knew or who their parents invited round.

As well as a few common-or-garden playgrounds, round here there is also a woodland area with lots of logs where children play, a paddling stream, a sports field, a park with a splash zone, a landscaped area with fountains and climbing trees, the library (which has a small soft play zone and an outdoor area), a common with a bandstand and duck pond and a skateboarding park with an area for smaller children. You can be fairly sure that if the weather is decent and you turn up with your kids to any of these places, there will be at least a sprinkling of kids playing for the DC to join in with.

I suppose I was thinking more about free unstructured child-led play in communal environments rather than organised activities.

That sounds lovely! Like our area but with a bit more investment. Sounds perfect for letting your kids go to by themselves, I really wish I was comfortable with that happening!

I grew up in the middle of nowhere and definitely had absolutely none of those amenities 😆

Most of the houses where I live were built in the 1940s/ 50s and 60s in a circle surrounding a green area obviously designed for children to play on where they could be easily watched.
The kitchens all used to be in the front too so women could cook etc and keep an eye on the kids, but most of the houses have now been renovated so the kitchen is at the back.
Those greens used to be full of children years ago, especially in summer but there are very few kids on them now.
There’s one little group of small kids who are often out around the corner. The other day they were playing with dolls etc on the green but there was a massive racket coming from the school where a summer camp was going on. Loads of the local kids were inside playing together.
I felt a bit sorry for the little group of girls. They have the freedom, but it’s a bit crap for them because there’s no other kids around for them to play with.
The only reason they are allowed out though is because none of their mothers work plus they all know each other (some of the kids are cousins) and they come out and check on them every now and again. Years ago there was a mother or grandmother in nearly every house, all casually keeping a communal eye on the kids. That just isn’t the way it is anymore. Society has fundamentally changed.
I’m a sahm, and I still won’t let my dd out on her own. She goes to camps for company and to play and get exercise, they’re closer to playing out than over in the playground with me watching at a distance (which I also do quite a lot) because that’s where most of the kids her age are.
The ones in the playground for hours at a time are the ones being minded by grandparents or the occasional sahp and tend to be younger. The vast majority are in child-care/ camps all summer.
No matter how much I might want my dc to be “free range”, I can’t send them into the past to play. I don’t understand why people go on about “battery kids” etc. What’s the point? It’s not just a matter of becoming more carefree, opening the door and letting the kids loose to enjoy playing freely, you’d be letting them out into a different world than decades ago when it was the done thing. And it’s never going to go back to the way it was.
As long as kids are looked after and have enough opportunity to play and socialise and exercise, they will mostly turn out perfectly fine anyway.

My 9 year old probably about 5-6 hours a week (although now she can get to the park that is usually between the park, our house and a friend's house) and my 7 year old maybe slightly less.

Really interesting question. We used to live opposite a very well used park & playground, and spent hours there with my DC. It was a real community hub as there was also a little community run tea room. We moved away from there when DC were 9, 6 and 2, and now live in a village with a playground that is used briefly in good weather after school pick up, but our lives are much more scheduled now & my youngest is now age 9 but spends very little time there…

a friend in their early 20s who grew up here has marvellous stories of free range roaming with his siblings & their friends but kids don’t seem to do that now - too much gaming instead…

I think it depends where you live. We live in a small town/ big village where from year 5 probably about half the class are in the park after school and at weekends. My daughter is 9 and is allowed out to the park but is given times she has to check in at home and has to come and ask if she wants to go to a friends house etc.

I was one of the boomer generation of free range kids. You know, the 'I disappeared after breakfast and didn't come back until dusk' lot.

Okay, it wasn't until dusk, probably, but certainly I recall many hours hanging out with friends in the fields around, fishing for sticklebacks and minnows, skimming stones, and generally being very free, at primary school age.

I don't recall a single parent being bothered about where we were going and when we'd be back.

If like to think there's a happy medium between that and constant supervision..

from year 5 probably about half the class are in the park after school and at weekends. My daughter is 9 and is allowed out to the park but is given times she has to check in at home and has to come and ask if she wants to go to a friends house etc.

That was how it was for my kids in the mid 90s. But I hardly ever see kids playing out now.
Our house used to front on to a green where kids used to kick a ball about etc most evenings, back then. I walk past there every evening now, and there's not a single child.

Mine are a bit young to run free yet, but hopefully will be able to in years to come. Some of the facilities are a bit run-down, but they exist and families/kids use them.

Our nearest park is either 30 min walk or a car drive and because dh and I work full time we don't have people we know to meet up with, so park time is always just us on our own at odd weekends. We just have play equipment in the garden instead. The DC spend 50 hours a week with friends so don't think they miss out.

My youngest is 9 and when the weather is nice maybe half an hour a day a few times a week. She also plays in the street and "grassy area" outside our house with other kids after school most days if it's dry

I find it fascinating because in my experience this isn't really a childhood experience determined by income. Socio-economic background seems to play a surprisingly small part in which children have access to high quality community play spaces and all the varied physical and social experiences that children have in them. Yes, there are some children from very poor families who can't access safe play spaces (and don't have gardens/clubs/sports to make up the lack either). But there are also children from very wealthy/well-off backgrounds who don't get much experience of unstructured communal play either.

At least 20 in the summertime, maybe half that when it's colder. With supervision though, they're too little to be free range.