A third of UK kids need to get out more

Figure drops to 28% for London youngsters, but that’s still not good enough

David Buckley

 

 

Remember the days when, if the sun was shining, your mum would insist that you go out to play?*

 

No? Well, in truth, I’m struggling to also.

 

Back when I was a kid the biggest “barrier” to playing outside was if there was something good on the telly.

 

However, in those days, when I lived just off the Old Kent Road, if we were playing, say, cricket out in the street (old metal dustbins formed a pretty good wicket) the game would be suspended for half an hour while we all went in to watch whatever.  But, as soon as the programme was finished, we would all come out again and a new over would be bowled.

 

Playing outside in a terrace-lined street close to a main thoroughfare could not be described as out in the freshair. But I still think it was/is healthier than sitting inside playing computer games or texting mates on your phone all the time (when I was young you have to go out to a phone box that used to be on many a street corner).  

 

Research has indicated that nearly a third of children in the UK are spending less than the recommended time outside. The figure drops a little (to 28%) for London kids who, thankfully, lag well behind the worst offenders in England’s second city, Birmingham (48%).

 

It seems that 31% of kids in Britain are failing to play outdoors for the NHS recommended minimum of three hours per week, with nearly a half of children from Birmingham spending less than two hours outside per week, according to parents.

 

Really, three hours per week, surely that is ridiculously low? I would have thought it should be at least an hour per day, rain and snow permitting.

 

Full story: https://londoninspire.co.uk/a-third-of-uk-kids-need-to-get-out-more/

 

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When I was a youngster,others and me were hardly in the house,

home from school,dinner and out till it started getting dark,then

you would hear the mother's calling the kids in.

 

Weekends spent out in the countryside,fishing,looking for birds nests,

camping,and very thankful i was available to live like that,when you

had real friends,you could talk to face to face, Yes they were simpler

times,its seems far too dangerous for young kids to be so free in today's

World ,and that's a crying shame,this is what civilization has come to,in

the West at least.

regards worgeordie

Getting the kids out is especially difficult in very built-up cities especially in Asia where there are few parks and it is not so easy to get out of the city. Parents who care about their children's future (where there is no prospect of a trust fund) push them to study too much.

 

I heard recently that the reason why so many city kids wearing glasses in Asia is because they seldom get to see any horizon and therefore never get to use the muscles in their eyes that change the lens accordingly.

don't want them to get stabbed. Seriously though, they make up for it as teenagers, always out and about dealing drugs

When I was a kid all we did was stampede the farmer,s cows, pull haystacks to the ground, and strip the nearest orchard of Cox,s Orange Pippins. Hopefully my parole hearing next week will be successful ????

Being in the house used to be a punishment. You were trapped in school most of the day and just wanted to run free.

I can't prise my 8yo off the Xbox or Youtube videos.

I was in a suburb of London as a child in the 1940's and 50's, lived between 2 commons on a road that ran uphill to one of the commons.

Once I had finished my homework I was free to roam.

Used to sit on a book placed on old style strap-on roller skate and go down the road, only a couple of cars in the whole road.     Also skate to uncles house 3 miles away.

Walked to a farm that was on the far side of the common.

The Pigman used to come once or twice a week for the food scraps and the rag and bone once a week too.

Walked to school from when I was about 6, it was only 2 streets away.

 

 

The worst feeling was when it was raining as you couldn't go out. Sunny summer holidays was an absolute dream; up into the woods, racing go-karts, building dens, down the park, BMX'ing, you name it. Brought up very near the country so was lucky. Just bear in mind we would also be sat at home if born into these times as the phone is sadly the culture of today.