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Average American Kid - Is this true?

Arkay

Arkay

Lunatic Member
I just read this on a website:

According to the National Wildlife Federation, the average American child spends between four and seven minutes playing outside each day. For a young child, that’s about enough time to throw a ball, retrieve it, and then head back inside.

I realize that thumbs on iPhones and Wii games and such have substantially replaced "play" as we used to know it...but have things really gotten this bad? BETWEEN FOUR AND SEVEN MINUTES? :yikes: If true, it's no wonder we're facing epidemics of childhood obesity, early-onset diabetes, etc...

Not to sound like another complaining old fart, but when I was a kid four to seven HOURS was probably closer to the norm, perhaps including the mandatory hour of "P.E." and recesses at school.

For those of you with kids, does this 4-7 minutes ring true, or is it a distortion, perhaps with a hidden agenda behind it? I just find the figure shocking. It implies, to my mind, that quite a number of kids must be getting NO exercise whatsoever, for every kid who actually goes out and, say, plays a game of football. Are things really that bad? What say ye?
 
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I see 2 to 3 families daily for my job. Most have kids, and most of the kids have lots of scheduled sports activities.
 
In my neighborhood there are about a dozen kids and they are generally outside for about 3 hours after getting home from school. Playing ball, riding bikes, etc.
 
I don't know. I seen kids outside playing all the time. There playing soccer, riding bikes, playing games. Mainly because where I live most families are poor and they cannot afford the video games and smart phones for their kids.
 
Arkay said:
I just read this on a website:

According to the National Wildlife Federation, the average American child spends between four and seven minutes playing outside each day. For a young child, that’s about enough time to throw a ball, retrieve it, and then head back inside.

For those of you with kids, does this 4-7 minutes ring true, or is it a distortion, perhaps with a hidden agenda behind it?
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, was there an age bracket defined in that article?

For our family, which includes 4 kids, the above is NOT true. All my kids spent (spend) time outside, particularly so at the younger ages. For my 7 and 11 year olds in particular, they'll seldom pass an opportunity to spend time outside, be it organized sports activities, just throwing the ball around (whatever form that takes), riding bikes, big wheels, etc.

With my older boys their outside activities tapered off as they hit their mid teens. They still get their exercise, though it takes the form of using the gym at the high school, and now college.

Frankly, if anyone needs to get their butt outside more, it's me.... and I'm far from being a kid.
 
I have a 1.5 year old toddler and that kid LIVES to be outside playing in the dirt. I also like to be outside but it's hard to keep him contained.
 
My kids are dirty, scraped, smelly little outdoor beasts that leave me with a garage full of captured critters in makeshift cages.
 
KeninDC said:
My kids are dirty, scraped, smelly little outdoor beasts that leave me with a garage full of captured critters in makeshift cages.
Click to expand...

Sums up my 3.5 year old daughter, except she brings them in the house. I`ve got a jar of ladybugs on my kitchen table right now. She also gets about half an hour(or more) of playground time, three times a week, when I pick her up from preschool. The off days from preschool she gets more outside time. For the record she also gets a healthy dose of quality music listening time.

That number of four and seven doesn`t add up to me. I`m sure there are plenty of kids where that number is true, but it doesn`t make sense as an average.
I`m also Canadian, not American, so I`m not sure if this is a case where we are considered the same, or completely different species. It can be hard to keep up.:D
 
The survey only includes "unstructured" play. So any organized sports, activities, or events are not included.
 
When I was young, we were kicked out of the house right after breakfast and told to be back by dinner. During the school year, we never got back to the house before dinner.

When my wife and I raised our three daughters, we did the same, but with much more supervision then we had. The times they are a changin.
 
I must admit that the only time I see (or hear) urchins in my neighborhood is when they walk to and from the school bus stop. This is odd, as when I was their age, the neighborhood would be a noisy place, what with roller skates, bicycle bells, the crack of a baseball bat, etc filling the air.

The only other time I see the nearest urchin is when he stops by, asking for a few chores to make a few bucks for weed.
 
I live in a pretty good neighborhood for playing, but don't see a lot of it. There are people within a block of me that I know have kids, but I hardly ever see them outside. It probably has less to do with the laziness of the kids, than with the parent's fear of the bogeyman.

What I see from relatives and friends with kids is that they are involved in organized activities and less in plain old playing. It's all part of some plot to produce generations of non-individualistic, non-trouble making taxpayers. Say what you want; your gibes bounce right off of my shiny hat.
 
In the summer we stayed outside playing as much as possible, including putting up the tent in the backyard and sneaking off to play half the night...a favorite after-midnight game was climbing the fence at a local Putt-Putt and playing golf with sticks and Superballs. It was a mile-and-a-half jog to get there. Afterwards, we'd go frogging at a creek another mile away. Supervision shmupervision. Finally sleep until about 10 am and start all over. Hard to believe now we ever had such energy, eh?
 
No kids here, but in reading the previous posts, I find it great that your kids play, doing whatever. :thmbsp: Research has shown that kids that play find much success in the adult world of work as they can get along with others, be creative and think independently. Play makes kids future leaders... think about it!
 
Think about it - the only "Average Americans" available to take the poll were those who sit around the house doing nothing. The real average Americans were outside doing something instead of taking polls.
 
It's nice to read that a lot of kids still get outdoors to play. I found the statistic to be mind-boggling and questionable, and while 17 replies in one thread of an audio board isn't much of a representative sample, the trend shown here is reassuring.

I suppose the comments about "structured" activities and fear of predators are valid changes in society, at least to some extent. Parents here in Hong Kong are --by US standards-- unbelievably protective and controlling of their kids. (College-bound kids are considered not capable of completing their own applications; parents have to oversee every step of the process, and pay people handsomely to assist. I get paid a lot for that kind of thing, as an American, but I think it's ridiculous; if a kid can't complete an application, how can you expect them to handle college assignments?) The control extends to scheduling every single hour of every day, cramming them full of activities and tutoring. Even if there was any empty time on a kid's schedule, the kids here aren't let out to play, because there basically aren't any safe play areas; even "parks" are usually concreted over, and school playgrounds are often just an open floor of a building with safety screening around it (except for a few of the most expensive schools). Parents would feel they weren't being responsible if they allowed their kids completely unplanned "play time". I feel really sorry for the kids, and am extremely grateful I didn't grow up that way. I wasn't sure how much of that disease might have affected American kids, after reading that statistic. Nice to know it's probably not what it sounded like. Thanks for the feedback!
 
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