Kids not playing outside as much anymore

[Vic 2.0]

Even being reminded of the availability heuristic and all, I still say this isn't just about risk, but risk as compared to necessity. Even while it isn't physically necessary for us to go visit a relative, it's more necessary than letting a kid play outside unsupervised. We are talking about making a social world even possible vs your theory on how being supervised somehow will always hinder a child's play time.

Originally Posted by ParallelJJCat

And again, even IF a parent could both not interfere and somehow not change play by their mere presence (impossible in my opinion), this is still forcing children to only interact when a parent has time.

You mean, it forces them to only play outside when a parent has time... Again, this depends on age; but generally I say "So what?"

Originally Posted by ParallelJJCat

No long free flowing quests that run for days, months, or even years.

I'm not sure what you're arguing for here, exactly. But like I say, it depends on the parent and the kid. Not all parents limit themselves to getting out once or twice a week, and not all kids want to spend all day outside either. I understand that you enjoyed this sort of play as a child. But some kids don't, and I do believe it's been this way since before we were kids.

Originally Posted by ParallelJJCat

No learning how to entertain themselves and manage their social obligations and own personal need for social contact

Why not? Seems to me that being restricted to the indoors from time to time would even better hone their skill of finding something with which to entertain themselves, and I don't understand what you mean by what I put in bold.

[Torn2pieces]

It's the age of video games/computers...

I see the difference from when I was a kid.... My kids do play outside, but I don't see many in my neighborhood out and and bout...

[Ceece]

My kids played outside with the neighbors kids when they were younger. It would all depend on who was living in the cul de sac at the time though. They played in the garage too, with the door open so they got fresh air.

I played outside when I was young but I'd be hard pressed to tell you what we did. Mostly we were outside because our moms didn't allow us in the house, not for some fantasy fun reason. I didn't play sports so I know I never did that. I do remember catching bees in a jar and getting stung a lot, and a friend of mine slicing open her leg with a bamboo stick someone was hitting us with. Got bit by a dog once too. Ahh..the good old days.

[Kophi]

Originally Posted by Charles

Prompted from the "Importance of Play" thread.

Anyone else (any other parents) notice kids "these days" don't seem to be outside playing with other kids as much as we seemed to have done when we were kids?

I vividly remember spending hours and hours outside with the neighborhood kids either sports in the street, climbing trees, riding bikes, etc. Nowadays I see one or two kids in the street chit chatting on their cell phones, maybe shooting hoops once in while.

Kids today only seem to be outside for maybe 30-60 minutes because, it seems, their moms have to be there too. The limiter is the moms' time as the moms don't like standing outside (with their arms folded - body language) talking to other moms about trivial things.

The rest of the time the kids are watching TV, playing video games, eating junk, etc. and my suspicion is because the moms would rather be inside on Facebook.

My wife and I will sometimes stand out in the front yard on beautiful 70F days in February (very common) and not see a single kid out playing. What the heck is up with that?

By the way, I have four girls 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2007.

Sound about right?

Sorry if I'm necroing this thread a bit; I came across it searching the interwebz about this topic and thought I'd contribute with an Indoorsy Person's Perspective.

While I used to play outside constantly as a kid, my own kids prefer being indoors primarily. Ironically, they don't struggle with the oft-cited side-effect of obesity -- quite the opposite, which I think is primarily due to genetics (folks in my family tended to be incredibly slim during childhoods ). They seem reasonably happy, and while I do at least encourage them to go out, if they seriously don't want to do so, I don't force them. They know they're free to do so if they choose.

Plus, having become more of an indoor-person myself as I've gotten older (especially during the hot summers here), I would feel somewhat hypocritical if I made them go outside -- and like it -- when I myself am not inclined to do so.

For better or for worse, I'm erring more on the side of moving with the general flow of their individual personalities as opposed to mandating in this area. Reverse-psychology being what it is, if I turn a "fun-to-do" into a "must-do", it will backfire. No Kodak moments to be had there, for sure.

The only time such indoorsy inclinations tend to bother me is when I forget that there's no obligation on our part to ensure that our pastimes serve as nostalgic re-enactments of those of yesteryear. We live in a high-tech age, and that's going to be reflected in the recreational, at least to some degree. I have to remind myself that, yes, it looks different from when I was a kid, and no, that doesn't automatically mean it's bad.

Meanwhile, other kids in our area do play outside, and a few of them have even been known to leave evidence of such in the form of graffiti on the street signs or BB-gun pellets just barely missing an eye. But hey, at least they got some fresh air, lol!

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[Vic 2.0]

Indeed, playing outside can be just as bad as it can be good for you.