We are mistaken in thinking that filling our children's every waking moment with activities or extra lessons is doing them good. Research tells us that children do not benefit from being reared in captivity - a balance and sensitivity to their needs is required.
Sometimes I wonder, if we were honest with ourselves, would we say that enrolling our children in numerous activities is a childcare issue rather than an opportunity for children to extend their skills? Would we say that sometimes the choice and frequency of activities was more about our own ambitions than those of the children?
The time children spend playing, that is, independently exploring the world around them and their relationship with it, is vital to their healthy development.
A recent study on child health and exercise found that children use the most energy over the most prolonged time when they are playing informally outside.
Professor Roger Mackett of the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London said in his report, 'Making children's lives more active', that the culture of parents ferrying children from one out-of-school activity to the next can be detrimental to the children's health. The social and developmental benefits that accrue from playing out with one's friends are far greater than those gained by spending even more time being directed by adults.
We need to let children be children. They are already experts in filling their own time; we don't need to do it for them. Perhaps our adult energies would be better spent in supporting them to do it their own way.
Gill Evans Information officer, Play Wales
