[heldt123]

I was reading this article in Reader's Digest last night about letting your kids play outside.

Quote:

Kids today spend less time outdoors than did previous generations. In 1981, according to surveys conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, children ages 6 to 17 spent an average of 100 minutes outdoors in unstructured play each week. By 2002, that time was halved to a mere 50 minutes.

Making Mud Pies, page 48A

Is this even possible? That would probably true for us in the wintertime with cold snaps and below zero temperatures, but when it's nice outside, we probably spend anywhere from 100-200+ minutes per day outside, mostly unstructured, playing at a park, gardening, etc...I can't even imagine a kid only being outside for 50 minutes per week. That's less than 10 minutes per day!!

On average, how much unstructured time do your kids spend outside each week? (I allowed for multiple choice to allow for different children if you want to do it that way.)

 

[Viola]

My toddler spends maybe 5-8 hours a week outside, and my 6 year old is probably almost double that. She goes outside during school and she will spend hours outside if her friend is there. She doesn't like to play outside a alone very much, but she will take walks with me.

 

[kofduke]

On weekdays, we usually go outside for a half hour or so after daycare/work. He also has outdoor time at daycare, some is structured with games, other is just free play on the equipment. So, we'll say an hour/day on weekdays. On weekends, we're usually outside for hours, throwing around the ball, playing in the sandbox, going to the park, etc.

I could see for school-aged children, that unstructured outside time is limited if they are involved in sporting activities, since that's usually an hour or two, several nights/week of "outside" time, but participating in some kind of planned activity. I know that my DS at age 2 is just waiting for the day he can play T-ball (seriously - not me or DH talking) and I can see him having much less "unstructured" play once something like that begins.

 

[AngelBee]

5 or more hours...

 

[mamatojade]

I said between 200-300 minutes to average through out the year. Right now it is way more than that, but during the winter it would be about 30 minutes a day. Since you specified PLAY I didn't count walking etc. which would probably add at least an hour to most days or looking for crabs at the beach.

 

[urklemama]

I live in a city with insane traffic and the local park is crowded with offleash dogs and crazy people, and we don't have a yard. Not much unstructured outside time.

 

[Emzachsmama]

my kids spend usually a couple hours outside everyday just playing with there friends or at the park in our complex. Sometimes even longer..especially on the weekend, we barely see them on saturday and sunday

.

 

[Faithsmom]

We try to give DD (toddler) AT LEAST an hr. outside per day as long it is a nice day.... (we live in New England)

We actually were outside for about three hours today (in and out) playing in her pool... looking at flowers etc. We plan to go back outside in a bit.

 

[Devaskyla]

I live in an apartment with a parking lot right outside our door. The only decent playground anywhere nearby is the one at the elementary school, which is usually over run with much older kids. Add to that the fact that I hate being outside and I'd have to be with him, and ds almost never plays outside, unstructured or otherwise.

 

[tyedyedeyes]

I make sure that DS gets outside every day...we live on the 3rd floor of an old 1920's apartment building (gorgeous, but no yard)...right on the corner of a somewhat busy street. There is a little patch of "yard" next to the building, but it is covered in the other apartment neighbors grills, patio furniture, and the landlords leftover construction crap.

:

There are several parks close to home though. We go there a good part of the time, now that it's nice out, but I love to bring him over to my parents house...my mom has a nice big backyard and long driveway for DS to play with trucks and other toys, and run around, playing with bouncy balls. He will run outside ALL day if we let him. I need to get this boy a yard. He can't stand being inside the house too long.

On average, given optimal weather conditions, we will spend about 20 hours a week, maybe more outside just playing. About 3 hours a day, depending on where we are. If I had my own backyard, like if I owned my parents house, DS would be outside about 5 or 6 hours a day if he could. In the winter, it's significantly less, but DS LOVES snow, and sledding, and all pushing the sled with toys on it and such thru the snow...so maybe 1 1/2 hrs a day...in increments. My step-father shovels the driveway and CARRIES ALL OF THE SNOW to the backyard every year and actually makes a sledding course in the backyard specifically for DS. :LOL He's such a big kid himself...

I need a yard. <sigh> We need to move.

 

[Hey Mama!]

Most days they spend at least a couple hours outside playing.

 

[Shonahsmom]

When the weather is anywhere near decent, on the weekdays after work, we spend atleast an hour at the park Mon.-Thurs. A couple hours on Fridays when I'm not worried about bedtimes. Saturdays and Sundays we're at the beach or park more waking hours than we are at home. I figure its a bare minumum of twelve hours a week. Winters are so long and brutal that we desperately appreciate being outside when the nice weather makes an appearance.

 

[huggerwocky]

during the summer she is outside more than 3 hours every day...that is while school is still in session, today is the last day and I don't expect her to sit at home all morning!

It is less during winter, but the only reason is that it DOES get too cold here at times.

We chose to rent this particular town home because of its location...it looked like a good place to play outside and I'd always to that again in the future if we have to move

 

[Dechen]

DD (20 months) spends several hours a day outside. She loves to be out.

 

[Faith]

For DS-6, being outside is the norm, and he only comes in if he has to do something (get a snack, bath, etc).

Granted, we have the ideal situation for this- seven rural acres with DH being WAH and outside all day too, so he can easily keep an eye on DS.

DD-4 is outside about half that, by choice.

Last year we lived in town, no yard, and it was much harder!

 

[armonia]

Well over 300 minutes per week. On weekends, probably at least 300 minutes or more a day! We have chickens and gardens and slip-n-slides and dogs, etc. and a huge yard.

 

[fluffernutter]

We are outside at least 1 hour every day when the weather permits (it's not buring hot or freezing cold). Either at the park or in the yard. We also go to the zoo, and other outdoor activites whenever possible.

 

[heldt123]

So....the people who did this research must have been asking the wrong people, eh? I suppose having the Univirsity of Michigan survey go up to 17 yo skews the results too as kids that age usually have more "stuff" going on than younger children.

 

[HokieMum]

We spend at least an hour a day outside, but usually more than that. Paige's current obsession is sidewalk chalking everything that doesn't move!

We have neighbors with young children that we rarely see outside...they just don't come out...

 

[FreeThinkinMama]

I would say less then 50 minutes at this point. she's 2 years old and we don't have a fenced yard. We have a swing and a sandbox outside for her but we live right by the street and I'm too afraid to just let her run around. We hope to move sometime before next spring so we can have a fenced yard(the landlord here won't allow it). To make up for it I bought a small toddler slide and put it indoors.

That's just freeplay though right? because we go yard saling every weekend and I take her with me for that. And we run errands every few days and obviously go outside for that. I'm a bit of a homebody though./