Are We Over Protecting Our Children?
The short answer to this question is simply YES. Council fear over health and safety and litigation has resulted in playgrounds that are unchallenging and unappealing to young people. The streets today are choked with traffic and unrecognisable compared with the roads in which we used to play as children and the playthings of today (video games and computers) actually encourage physical idleness. The explosion in the use of the mobile phone has also contributed to the lazy, sedentary lives that many of us and our children lead today.
Surveys of children and young people have indicated that they would actually like to spend more time engaged in healthy activities but that facilities no longer exist. Many of us can recall growing up at a time when people were poor and there were very few purpose built facilities for young people. We look at the modern parks and play areas and think ‘what is wrong with kids today? We didn’t have all this when we were young.’
It is true that the modern, well designed and safe play areas and parks didn’t exist when we were young but what we did have was space. The roads were far less crowded and so it was possible to have a kick around in the street outside your house. Where there are now housing estates and car parking spaces there was once open space, ideal for adventurous play. The playgrounds of the sixties and seventies would have just a few pieces of poorly maintained outdoor play equipment, a slide, some swings and maybe a roundabout. The fact that the equipment was old and a little dangerous made it all the more exciting!
We are responsible for these changes and we are responsible for denying our children the opportunities to play outdoors. I am not suggesting that we should tolerate poorly maintained or dangerous outdoor play equipment in our parks and play areas but what I am saying is that we are responsible for the overcrowded, unhealthy society in which we live today. The developmental needs of our children have been pushed aside as we have tried to make everything ultra-safe in order to allay our anxieties whilst, at the same time, we’ve allowed our towns and cities to become horribly overcrowded.
We need to fix things now! We need to provide our children with the opportunity to play outdoors, to have adventures and to be trusted. We need to take a hard look at the society that we have created and do whatever it takes to make it a healthy society with facilities and attitudes that encourage youngsters to develop healthy habits.
Written by Dr_Bob on November 15th, 2007 with
2 comments.
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#2. November 22nd, 2007, at 12:58 PM.
I do feel sorry for urbanite children; as a child I lived in a secluded cul-de-sac bordered by grass and marsh lands. No council-approved play equipment, it was kicking a ball about in the road and running and playing in the long grass - that old making your own entertainment cliché.
Even now having moved on I live within easy distance of four playable areas with one being a wood and another being bounded by one, so the wilds are still there.
There’s a need for clear, open, short-grass space; but there’s a more pressing need for the wilds, areas that a child can disappear into themselves. Sadly though it’s that disappearing bit that frightens us as parents so everything becomes safe, sterile, and approved. A child can no longer kick free and test their boundaries as there’s nowhere to do so any more.
No the wilds may be dangerous, but the risks are more then worth it.