KIDDING AROUND BRING BACK THE PLAYGROUND
Parents who keep their youngsters cooped up indoors may be curbing their development
“WHO has time to catch a falling leaf; should I just sit there and wait? Catching a crab with a net is just disgusting. Will you get me gloves, because I won’t touch it. A snail race is just stupid and we don’t have snails. How should I make mud pie and should I eat it? That’s crazy.”
This is nine-year-old Christian Naidoo talking, one of many South African kids who balk at the idea of climbing a tree, flying a kite, making a mud pie and taking part in other outdoor activities. Some have not even seen a snail.
Christian would rather get a new iPad than participate in the “50 things to do before you turn 11¾” app launched last week by the UK’s National Trust.
The charity that promotes open spaces found that children today spend half the time their parents did playing outside.
Through the app Game of Thrones star Raleigh Ritchie, teaming up with the trust, encourages children to fulfil the list to receive a “mystery reward”.
Christian’s mother, Pamela, said the list — which includes finding one’s way with a map and compass, setting up a snail race, rolling down a really big hill, catching a fish with a net, catching a falling leaf and a crab, and bringing up a butterfly — conjured up many “beautiful childhood memories”. But she agreed with her son. “Children today have too little time to be just normal and do kids’ stuff. Schools should probably make them do things on the list instead of unnecessary homework that we as parents have to teach.
“Parents work too much. Most don’t have time to do the things on the list,” she said.
Parenting expert Nikki Bush said the average suburban child lived in a fenced and gated home and was not allowed to play in the street due to safety concerns.
“With parents not being at home, because everyone is working, parents believe their children are safer indoors than outdoors. It requires a conscious effort by parents to get their children into environments that have trees or where they can make a mess and get dirty,” she said.
Bush said it was important to give children the freedom of the outdoors, where they could use their bodies, stimulate gross PITCH PERFECT: The absence of a proper soccer field doesn’t stop these kids in Johannesburg’s Diepsloot SIMPLE PLEASURES: There’s nothing like a roll in the leaves with mum motor co-ordination, discover and explore their environment, and be free.
“So often when children are stuck indoors they are not free to be. Children become constrained. It’s very important for their creativity and their imagination for them to play outside as well as for the physical health side of things.”
She said parental busyness was a “huge problem”.
“Even with families that choose to live in secure estates, I find that the domestic help takes children to the park. So once again we come back to parental choice. And do parents actually know how important it is for children to play outdoors and do gross motor activities? That is also a stumbling block.”
Durban parent Sivumelwano Hlongwane called today’s children “the hashtag PlayStation/Xbox/mobile/laptop/tablet” generation. “There’s an obsession with technology at the expense of real socialising and the sheer bliss of youthful outdoor living. Fun things like flying kites, playing games like shumpu [an indigenous game like cricket], building cars with wire, a highlight of my youth . . . these are a lost art.
“Heck, these kids barely talk
Kids barely talk to other kids what with all the texting that goes on
GRUBBY BUT FUN: Kids enjoy playing in the mud in Ficksburg, Free State to other kids what with all the texting that goes on,” Hlongwane said.
Siyabonga Maphumulo said the list made him realise his 10year-old son Mlondeki spent little time outdoors. “We are setting up a snail race this weekend,” he said.