why don't people "muck it up" anymore?

[DaddyCool]

We live by a very nice park. Big, playing fields, forested area, formal gardens, kids play equipment, squirrels, four full time gardeners etc. It won Britain in Bloom a few years in a row and there are no hazards. No horrible stuff like used syringes or condoms. Not even any dog poo. I keep my eyes open for these things!

It?s always empty . We take DS there everyday or at least DW takes DS there on weekdays and me on weekends. DS has a few sets of mucky clothes and so do we and we go over and get muddy and play with a ball and have a great time. The only people I ever see with young kids are Dad?s who look extremely bored and spend all of 10 minutes pushing their kids on the swings or Mums on their way back from town plastered in make up and wearing three inch heels who completely by-pass the park and go straight home.

The park is surrounded on all sides by townhouses and terraces mostly made up of young families and it?s a pretty decent area so why don?t we see anyone? I don?t understand why people don?t take their kids out and do this kind of thing anymore. Is it that?

1. People think they are too posh these days to do this?
2. People feel there are hazards and don?t want to take the risk?
3. People can?t be arsed?

I don?t understand it. Does anyone else have any views?

I often take DD to the park, but
1)It is freezing at the moment
2)Ours has broken bottles/condoms etc so you have to be careful where to play
3) Childrens park is crap (1 cock-eyed swing and a graffitied climbing frame, no spongy ground - just a think layer of bark chippings)
4) The saving grace is the duck pond which she loves, but there is no barrier and my heart is in my mouth every time she throws a piece of bread.

but we are lucky that we live close to lovely countryside and can go on nature walks, lots of woods, ponds and canals.

Wellies and scruffs needed for those.

Dp & his parents HATE parks & so do my friends - they just find them dull - but I am addicted and I adore them...

I used to be a gardener in ST James Park London and my DH works in Islingtons Parks which have Park keepers in almost all areas which is what we need in our local park someone to clear up any mess and keep the yobs from ruling. Islingtons parks are used by the locals alot more too.

In the summer our parks are well used but it is just so cold so people don't bother. However as we are dog owners we are out every day what ever the weather and dd comes along. We are quitle lucky here to have quite a few open spaces plus the beach for dd and dog to run about in, but at this time of year there aren't many other people around.

We also have a local little playground which we use a few times a week on the way home from school, but again at the moment it is just so cold.

But thinking back to when I was a child I used to go to the park a lot on my own which isn't really an option anymore, maybe that is why they are underused. With more working parents more children will be in nurseries so won't be in parks in the week.

I am lucky to live in a nicer part of town, I do know that there are lots of other parks/playgrounds that are just a health hazard, full of broken glass or syringes.

Donbean have you phoned the council about the dog poo, Blackpool council do seem to be quite hot on it. I ahve phoed to complain about a park in Bispham and it improved and I know a friend complained about her street in South Shore and that improved as well.

Oooh this park sounds nice! Where is it!
I love our local park, I would definitely take my two there more often if it wasn't for this cold weather! We spent 5hrs there a couple of weeks ago! DH doesn't know how we managed it, but we had so much fun.

We used to live next to a massive park and we'd be there come rain or shine, quite often we were the only ones there, feeding the ducks in our wellies! We had to go through the park to get to DS school, which was great! I knew other families living near by who never stepped foot in the park, even in the summer, think it was laziness really, alot of the mums were happier dragging the kids round the town all day!

Last week I let ds2(2yrs) out of his pushchair for a walk in the park. A man came rushing over to warn me that a lot of used syringes had recently been found there. There's broken glass and dog cr@p all over the place. Our 'beloved' council keeps taking away play equipment to "fix it" and it mysteriously never reappears. There are also skiving teens who ride all over the place on those mini-motorbike things and don't care who gets in their way. It's no longer a safe place for a 2yr-old.

Our Park usually has LOADS of people in it - we are in a town with high levels of deprivation; I don't know if that makes a difference? Also there is a LOT of terraced housing here without gardens, so I guess people have to make the effort to go to the park or playground!

We live in SW Cumbria, but many people hardly go up to the Lake District at all. Our school takes children there on residentials in yr 4, 5 and 6. The Head told me up to half the children have never been before! (You can get to Coniston Lake - gorgeous spot - in 30 mins in the car, 50 mins on a bus!)

I have the same prob daddy cool, i live in a lovely village, and i have two parks walking distance and one very lovely park a short drive away. I take dd at least once a week, sometimes up to four times if we don't have much else to do ( i work parttime).

And it is soooo rare to see anyone else around! i find it quite eery sometimes that it is so quiet, and one of the parks have woods nearby and it is so quiet i panic myself about bogey men hiding in the bushes spying on us! .

I always feel the same, what a shame it is that these areas aren't used more.

The rare occasions we do meet other children at the park, dd loves it and always has a game of chase or something with the other children, so i do feel sorry for her when shes just got "mum" for company!

Our parks in walking distance are pretty boring, and not much good for younger children although they are OK for picnics in the summer. We are lucky to have a couple of really good ones within about 20 minutes drive, and we tend to spend afternoons up there (Dulwich Park, and Kelsey Park in Beckinham in case anyones interested!)

I have to say we do tend to hibernate during the winter. We went up to Kelsey Park during the half term with the boys bikes, and I wish that I had gone up more over the winter as they loved it and DD (16mths) relished the freedom of running around. We haven't got a garden btw so I live in parks during the summer. Me and DD will be eating our sandwiches out pretty much every day the weather lets us

I fully agree with DaddyCool - more people should be doing that! Cold in the winter, though, and boring, if you're just standing there waiting - but still worth it, it's so good for the children! On winter weekends, we used to go with dh and take turns going for a run while ds played - so everyone stayed warm and happy.
Funny thing though - some parks are a lot more popular than others. In Oxford, where we lived, there was one that was always full of people and kids, even in winter...lovely place.
I think outdoor play is absolutely vital - we'd go mad if we had to be stuck indoors all the time!

We muck it up
We go to parks and playgrounds every weekends for ages. We have just moved so at the moment we are exploring new areas. We go out come rain or shine (or snow). The one things that does still bother me is all the dog poo though. Yes, people are better at cleaning it up, but there are still lots of it around.

ds will be able to play in the snow today. wish i could be there

Are you kidding.... The parks that we frequent (Romsey, Winchester and Salisbury) are always choc full of children, so much so that it's almost a problem (you have to wait for the swings for example)

Having gone back and read this thread a bit more, I notice that a lot of parks are beleaguered with problems like used syringes etc. Maybe that's why the ones in our area are popular. They are clean and well maintained and I have never encountered anything like that.

Yes DC, we go out. Not always to the local playground, which is clean but quite small and swimming in mud in winter. DH still takes DS sometimes at weekends though. We go on long walks down the lanes in our village. We are lucky to have a 3/4 mile river path off-road, which is gorgeous. We can traverse the whole length of it and only pass half a dozen people at this time of year, but in summer more people use it.

I think we must be really lucky as we have a wonderful local park and it's always chocca. Rabbits, guinea pigs, budgies, parakeets, duck pond, miniature steam railway etc and it's always chocca, even in the winter. And I've never seen any dog poo or unsavoury consumables.

Having said that, it's usually dh who takes them as despite all that I find parks desperately boring.

vess - which park were you referring to?

Xena - Avery Hill or Eltham Park?
We've given up on Southwood, our local, because it is always being vandalised and covered not only in dogshit but broken vodka bottles.
I find the huge gangs of teens skulking on the play equipment intimidating too
We used to live near Greenwich Park and that was so different.
And my parents have lovely Bitts Park in Carlisle which we go to all the time for a quick stroll.
Agree with you about the Lakes Roisin - we rarely hear local accents on our many forays to Ennerdale/Ullswater/Derwentwater. It's only 25-30 mins from Carlisle...[puzzled emoticon]
Interesting thread daddycool. We do a lot of country walking in Kent and in Cumbria, and wherever we are on holiday, and get well mucky then, but find our local park too depressing. You are very lucky with yours

Marina Eltham Park is our local I don't know southwood. have you seen this thread though? meetup

Handlemecarefully your parks sound nice what part of the world are you from?

Xena, southwood is the park behind n.eltham library! marina I thought it was awful the last time I went there too.

Saw it Xena, am at work Hope it goes really well!
wobblyweeble, another New Elthamite! Southwood really is down on its luck, isn't it a shame.

I would love to have a park to ourselves! Maybe they see you coming and run indoors or maybe you should just see yourselves as very lucky.

Cheeky! Must be all the Absolut bottles clinking in my pushchair net