To remove the lawn in a family garden?

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And create a grown up space instead?

I would be concerned about the impact on minibeasts and thus birds, hedgehogs, badgers etc. that removing a lawn would have.

I hate seeing gardens without lawns and our children are now grown up. It is cooler in summer too, to have some grass.

Grass is awesome if its decent and good drainage not just for paddling pools but for picnics out on the lawn in the evening even at school age it's nice to go out with a picnic blanket and have tea out there in summer. My kids practicing their "gymnastics" if you can call it that. I have to admit I too hate gardens without grass, ours isn't the best as it's not level and it's not the best drainage but we have a lot of fun on it.

The no1 thing about gravel that puts me off is if you have a high number of outdoor cats in your area because it just becomes one big cat litter tray. We know someone around the corner did hers and the kids rarely go out since she's done it because its disgusting, shes tried non-harmful cat repellent, shes bought a Battery Operated Cat Repeller so far nothing has worked. She had no issues with cats previously they didn't do anything on her lawn before but since they changed it to gravel there have been lots of visits, shes tempted to redo the lawn or have astro in the hope they stop coming to her garden.

One thing to consider is wildlife. We have (badly kept atm) lawns and DS has loved watching caterpillars, centipedes, grasshoppers, woodlice, slugs and snails and all the other bugs and insects. We've also seen bats, hedgehogs, frogs, and a slow worm. A shame for the wildlife to lose the space and perhaps a bit of a lost opportunity for your DD.

When DD was 2, we got rid of leylandii tress which were the boundary "hedge" and all the grass at the same time (pocket hankerchief lawn). We put down gravel over most, a patio area outside the back door and have 2 large beds (1 each side) running towards a "wilderness area" at the end (big concrete breeze block wall has ivy growing over it and some tree ferns in front of it).

Patio could have paddling pool etc on it, with just a rug underneath in case of snagging rubber/plastic against stone paving. DD never minded the stone under her.

We have big cushions we can put down to sit on the ground, as well as regular chairs. It's easy to get the BBQ out and use it - or put it away and have the rotary clothesline open when the breeze is good.

But it is far more useful to us this way, cutting such a small patch was annoying and it never grew well due to light issues, and now we just add a bag or 2 of fresh stones every couple of spring seasons if they have dropped a bit. Never had an issue with DD around it. She's now 12, we are not planning on going anywhere soon but I don't think it would put anyone off buying - but it would be easy to reinstate if that was a problem.