Raise your hand if you have seen a young child at the playground hunched over a smartphone instead of swinging from the monkey bars or playing tag with their peers. I certainly have more times than I’d like to count.
There is a park we like to go to with a secret hideout for kids. One morning, I noticed my children slithering inside to conceal themselves during a good game of hide-and-seek with their siblings. Once they got in there, my kids were almost as aghast as I was to find a young elementary aged child playing games alone on a smartphone instead of engaging in play.
No judgement from me if your kid is the one scrolling in the playground hideout. I’ve allowed my own kids to watch one too many episodes of cartoons during seasons of high stress and I have certainly paid the price. Regardless, we all know that children’s dwindling ability to enjoy the outdoors and play imaginatively is a problem and electronic devices are a very likely culprit.
I remember riding my bike for hours as child. I didn’t have any siblings so I would just talk to myself and imagine an exciting scene. There would be characters, battles, bad guys, and hideaways in my mind as I navigated my own little adventure. Sometimes my bike would serve as a horse. Other times it would be a getaway car.
I vividly remember being disappointed when the sun went down and I was called inside for the evening.
Kids Are Losing The Love For Outdoor Play
A major parenting problem I have noticed is that today’s children struggle to be outdoors for more than a couple of minutes without complaining. Modern kids expect constant entertainment and that is just plain exhausting for parents. No wonder we turn to the electronic babysitter. We can’t come up with endless activities and energy to entertain our little people around the clock.
The tech savvy kids of this generation are struggling to play independently both indoors and outdoors. They are used to unrealistic stimulation from screen time and they don’t know how to make their own good old fashion fun anymore.
Fast paced images are presented to them on screens all day long. These kids can click, scroll, and tap to get whatever they want instantaneously, yet they can’t entertain themselves in the backyard or get through the mundane parts of the day with a good attitude.
Slow things that used to be exciting when most of us were children have lost their luster for today’s children. Think of the time that goes into planting, weeding, watering, and waiting on a garden to grow. Most kids today are missing out on the ability to enjoy something as simple as a vegetable garden because it’s not exciting enough. The results aren’t instantaneous.
Why would a child find a rabbit in the yard amusing when they are allowed to watch hundreds of short, hilarious videos on their electronic device each day? How could sitting down and drawing a detailed picture be delightful to a child when they have the world of violent video games at their fingertips?
This is the struggle of modern day parents. We don’t want to be the odd balls and we don’t want our children to miss out on the latest and greatest technology. We also want the break we get from the electronic babysitter so that we can get our own tasks done in peace. Too many of us allow our children to use screens and then wonder why our kids can’t manage normal everyday boredom and play independently like we could at their age.
Solutions For When Screen Time Has Hijacked Childhood Play
Put play in your child’s daily routine
Set your kids up with a solid morning and evening routine full of positive screen-free tasks they must check off, including outdoor play.
Refuse to bow to your child’s screen dependence. You are the parent. Power down the electronic devices and start requiringoutdoor play today.
Just like brushing teeth, drinking water, and going to bed at a reasonable time are things that we as parents do not make optional for our children, consistent outdoor play shouldn’t be optional either.
Outside play is foundational for our developing young children.
Through frequent outdoor play children…
- Build muscular strength
- Take healthy risks
- Lower their stress levels
- Exercise in natural and fun ways
- Grow their imagination
- Get lots of good vitamin D from the sun
- Offset boredom and decrease their screen time
Normalize independent play. Make this a part of your child’s schedule early and frequently. Require independent play before allowing screen time in your kid’s daily routine.
Model a love of the outdoors
Do the work up front to inspire your children to enjoy the outdoors. This means get outside with them as often as possible, without any devices. Don’t scroll on your phone while they climb a tree.
Kick around the soccer ball, jump on the trampoline, plant a basic garden, and read a book in the shade. Show your children that you value the outdoors. Before you know it, they will not only be excited to play outside with you, they will begin to choose to play outside on their own.
Provide Supplies
Provide simple non-electronic supplies and open ended toys for your children to engage with outdoors. Less is more. Nature provides plenty for your child to work with. But for a complete list of our favorite screen free supplies to get your kid started, check out my post on unstructured play.
Do a technology detox
Consider doing a screen free week to help your child reset and spur them on in free play. For the full scoop on how we do a screen free summer every year and how you can do a digital detox of any length with your family, check out this post:
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