How do you encourage your children to play outside? Tell Persil for a chance to win a £300 voucher! NOW CLOSED

[PoppyMumsnet]

A new global study of 12,000 parents reveals children are spending on average less than an hour outdoors per day - and in the UK specifically 1 in 5 children never play outdoors.

In response to this, Persil is launching the Dirt is Good campaign, encouraging children to spend more time playing outdoors.

Here’s what Persil has to say: “We believe that children need plenty of outdoor play because climbing trees, building dens and just being in nature are essential for their learning and healthy development. That’s why we say that #dirtisgood. However, parents have told us that it’s getting more difficult to find time and places for their kids to play. So, in partnership with parents, educators, and other leading child development experts, we want to investigate ways to help children play and explore more so that they can learn and develop to their full potential.”

Persil wants to hear your top tips for encouraging your children to get out and play. Do you feel they have fewer opportunities to play than you did? What are the main obstacles to outside play and how do you overcome them? What, if anything, would you like to help you facilitate outdoor play for your children?

Everyone who adds a comment to this thread will be entered in to a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 Love2shop voucher.

Thanks & good luck!

MNHQ

Standard T&Cs apply

Get a dog that likes playing football - hours of fun!

We lucky we have difficulty keeping our ds indoors, just loves the trampoline

put the wipes away and get the wellies on! Let children know its ok to get dirty. my 2 are certainly happiest when playing in the mud and climbing trees! local parks and forests are super for getting as mucky as possible, just take a spare pair of clothes for the journey home if you're in the car ;) #dirtisgood

My kids don't need encouragement they love being outdoors no matter what the weather.

I used to play out for hours on my own or with friends and I can't imagine mine having the freedom that I did as a kid. I also live in a big city, so roaming around wouldn't be advisable. We take the kids to the park every day in the Summer so the kids get the chance to play in the open air. There are also open air skate and bike parks that the kids go to. The hardest is in the Winter when it's very cold and wet as they don't want to go out much then!

I feel the same. There seems to be less time and places for kids to go play. It seems that weather is more unpredictable and also things don't seem as safe nowadays but I think the main thing for us is not having our family and friends around to spread the workload and go out and enjoy the air come rain or shine.

For our family,we limit tech time. Normally there is so much to do at home with household chores and so on that it can get difficult to find the time to go outside. So how we encourage it is having a garden allotment since we don't have our own. Letting the kids choose their own fruit, veg and flowers to plant and then digging themselves, planting, watering. So every week they have their patch to look forward to taking care of.

Also, if we go grocery shopping, we try to make a pit stop at a park or field first. If we are going to do top up grocery shopping, then we will walk it as less things to carry.

We also try not to get troubled by rain and embrace it by layering up and wearing wellies as we did when we were kids.

The main thing is to take each day at a time and have a attitude of, come on let's go out! And take it from there.

We rent a house with an enormus garden for the same price as we'd have been able to buy a house with a tiny one. It means we have denied ourself the opportunity to get on the ladder...but we wanted them to have an outdoor life and so was a conscious decision for us. I know a lot of peoole think we are mad not to be securing our future by buying...but to us their being able to have access to nature, with the good mental health that brings, was a top priority.
The kids never need any encouragement to go outside because they have loads of space to b in, and we have various animals for them to play with and ride on.
We're oudoorsy ourslves, they see us outside all the time, and when we're not at home we're walking somewhere or wild camping or swimming. Who knows what they'll prefer when they are older, but at the moment the issue is getting then inside.

I ask them to help me In the garden,then help me to make a picnic to sit out with

Provide a child with a sponge, a bowl of bubbly water and a couple of ideas & they are away! Mine love washing the windows, making grass soup and making rivers for their dinosaurs!

At the slightest hint of sunshine and not too chilly temperature, I put three large buckets in the front garden (those big trough gorilla ones are the best)
One filled with water, one with towels and one with a selection of water pistols, squeezy bottles and squirters.
I send DS out to round up his mates and they spend ages entertaining themselves and getting very wet without having to traipse through the house getting everything wet!

I'm dealing with bug phobia at the moment. Bees, flies, wasps, gnats you name it they squeal over it, then run indoors. Such a shame

We've always spent time out in the garden whenever possible since dd was tiny. Lots of outdoor toys, gardening together, picnics and barbecues.
We also take a cricket bat when we go anywhere so we can play outside, and we don't worry about the weather... just wrap up or put waterproofs on and get outdoors!

We have rules, no computers on nice days, we go out family walks, get the bike or scooter out, or he goes out and plays on his swing set or trampoline!

Waterproofs and good willies for the kids to jump in puddles. Don't stress when they get wet and so do you.

We are very lucky to have a large garden and also live directly opposite a park! My 11 year old tends to be the organiser of games, which my 4 year old valiantly tries to keep up with.
The four year old is still at the stage where I can make him think that something is his idea - "come on then get your shoes on and you can go in the garden, what was it you wanted to play?" he will go along with this quite happily.
The 11 year old is more a case of "I will allow Xbox time once you have experienced fresh air for a non specific period of time". To be fair to him though he does enjoy being outside once he's there, and gets the younger one doing all sorts of things I wouldn't necessarily have thought of!

The garden - or yard, depending where/when - was treated as just another room in the house. So that meant colouring, eating, and den building could take place outside just as much as inside.

From somewhere at a very young age I had a daughter with an interest in and love of growing things, and she was happier outside. For my part, I stopped being precious about the majority of her clothes and let her get out there and get on with it. Leading by example helped - we did our commute to nursery and work with her on my bike from age 2 - I think cars are the biggest threat to any child from seeing being outdoors as, not good, but normal!

I'm sure that as she grows up she'll need rules but the above seem to have worked so far (age 9).

We have planted seeds and are going out regularly to feed them DD loves playing with the watering can.

I live in a flat so no garden to play outside in but I try to take my son (2 years) outside as often as I can. We have a great park nearby and we often go for walks around the area to jump in puddles. We also do day trips to outside attractions, the farm, beach etc. We do it all as a family.

I think you do have to just get them outside and they will soon find something to do. It's difficult because when I was younger, all the children played outside in our village but we just don't live in that time or place for my son to grow up and do that.

Turn off tv. Open door.

We have an out2play scheme

Volunteers set up camp with wood ropes, swings made from scrap, old bikes, water guns, cricket, balls, bits of plastic and local children come out2play for a few hours -

https://www.thechildrenscentre.org.im/programmes/children/out2play/

It runs in the school holidays at set times - sometimes in the woods: sometimes in school playgrounds -

Always fun!!!!

We have decent outdoor toys, encourage them to enjoy the rain (lots of splashing in muddy puddles) and only allow water play outside. Also trying to get them into gardening.

Bought a trampoline. Best thing I ever did. Feel sorry for the neighbours though

We joined the National Trust. Lots of safe but exciting outdoor places for us to visit as a family. We also encourage our children to use their bikes and trampoline. We are lucky to live in a village with a fab park where we enjoy being part of the village community.

We've led by example, outside is always the go to option. Eating, socialising and playing. If it's cold we wrap up and have a large patio umbrella to keep us dry. We've never needed to encourage or bribe for outside play as we've brought her up to think it's just the norm to be outside. It's never been an issue