Roaming free or structured play?
Structured activities are the norm for this generation. But if they don’t ease up, they may lose the concept of free play, writes Bess Manson.
Free play or packed schedule? There’s a great gulf between those who think their child would benefit from a plethora of extracurricular activities and those who advocate a freer existence – tree climbing, neighbourhood roaming, fort building – the wild west of entertainment.
There’s something to be said for offering kids a chance to participate in the myriad sports and creative activities on offer. The range of options is kaleidoscopic.
But there’s also a tide of opinion that letting children play freely, doing things that don’t require being organised and focused, is the way forward if we want this generation to be balanced and stress-free.
For many kids, adventurous play is something they only read about in books: ‘‘Live vicariously, kid, but you’re not doing that!’’
The free play vs structured activity debate is really only an issue for this post-millennial generation.
Back in the day free play was just ‘‘play’’.
Scott Duncan, Associate Professor of Sport and Recreation at Auckland University of Technology, says structured play is very much a phenomenon of this generation. Gen X and Gen Y were for the most part free-players, who did one or two structured extracurricular activities a week if they were lucky.
The decline in free or risky play stems from a generation of ‘‘hyper-parenting’’, according to Duncan.
Indeed, some parents feel they are not doing their kids justice if they’re not lining up all manner of activities for fear they will be bored at home (a good thing, as it turns out). The motivation might also come from a more panicfilled place, a fear their children will be left in the dust by their peers, who are violining, pirouetting and gymming their way to a life of success.
Duncan says there are more pressures on parents these days. More households have two working parents who have less time to be home with their children just mucking about in the garden or neighbourhood.
There’s more pressure for parents to be seen to be focusing on their children’s development, for fear they might be left behind their peers, he says. ‘‘We need to become more relaxed. If we do not act, if we let this overstructured environment just drift along, then this generation will not know anything about risky play and before you know it, they’ll be parents who have absolutely no concept of free play.’’
Kids don’t need to be constantly organised into entertainment. There’s a lot to be said for boredom, Duncan says. ‘‘It’s not just a good thing but an absolutely necessary thing to spark creative activity.
‘‘It might mean putting up with half an hour of whining but all of a sudden you’ll turn around and see the kids building a car out of a cardboard box. That’s just the way kids roll. Boredom can be a trigger for them to realise they can entertain themselves and that can be very rewarding and confidencebuilding.’’
Duncan says overstructuring is related to the fact that our children are less likely to be allowed to roam as far and as freely in their neighbourhoods as their parents did as kids.
The biggest fears for parents today were traffic and illintentioned adults lurking on every corner.
He recalled some telling statistics from a State of Play survey of parents, in which more than 70 per cent of respondents felt traffic imposed the most serious danger. Most worrying, though, was that 60 per cent of parents said they were fearful their children would be confronted by ill-intentioned adults if they were to roam their neighbourhood.
But we should not be changing our behaviour based on these unlikely scenarios. ‘‘These fears might well come from the fact we don’t know our neighbours anymore.
‘‘We don’t rely on our communities to prop up our kids, which is sad, because right through the ages humans have operated in groups where we look out for one another.’’
Free play is essential, he says, if we are to teach our children to be well-rounded adults. ‘‘We need to give them time to do activities without adult supervision.’’
Structured activities were not bad per se. There was a lot to be gained from after-school endeavours. The opportunity to learn, to be part of a team, to meet new people and form friendships can’t be underestimated.
It’s when you overstructure your children, when they don’t have any down time, that life can become less fun for them, he says.
‘‘Kids don’t get to develop the skills they need if they are continually organised into structured activities. If you allow kids to play on their own terms they grow in resilience, in independence, they build their creativity and problem-solving and risk management skills.’’
The latter is crucial. ‘‘In order for kids to navigate more serious risk in later life, they need to be able to manage smaller risks as children.’’
Just ask Sarah Wright, whose two boys, Nathan, 8, and Desmond, 6, are as free range as they come. Wright and her partner, Brian, moved to Carterton, in Wairarapa, from San Francisco when their elder son was a year old because life in a city apartment would have meant all his play would have been structured.
‘‘We wanted to give him a wild and free youth and living here he has all the space to run free, where he can roam in the neighbourhood and hang out with his friends without being constantly supervised by adults,’’ says Wright. ‘‘The boys are structured all day at school so it’s good for them to play freely when they get home.’’
She has offered them the chance to sign up for various activities but they prefer to make their own fun, she says.
That involves playing on the shed roof and jumping into a stack of branches they have sawn off nearby trees, climbing anything climbable, rigging up ropes on the clothesline to clamber up, cooking, lighting fires, and generally mucking around with other kids in the neighbourhood.
‘‘They get to have their freedom and through that they are developing resilience because they don’t feel they are being constantly monitored and organised by adults. They know about risk because they have had to evaluate risk in their dayto-day play.’’
Their social skills are developed by solving disputes with their friends by themselves
and their free play has given them physical and mental confidence, she says.
Her younger son is a keen cook and is allowed to use the oven and sharp knives by himself. ‘‘I want to give them freedom to be a kid because you’re only a kid for such a short time in life.’’
There are no concrete statistics on the number of activities kids are doing but they do a lot more than the previous generation. For a start, there’s so much more on offer and no shortage of enthusiasm from kids to participate.
Proponents of structured play talk of the benefits that come with organised activities – teamwork, leadership, confidence, an increase in physical activity, the opportunity to make new friends.
A 2017 Sport New Zealand survey of 2000 New Zealanders found that being physically active created happier, healthier people, better-connected communities and a stronger New Zealand.
Ninety-two per cent of respondents believed being active relieved stress and kept them physically fit and healthy, while 88 per cent found sport and other physical activities provided them with opportunities to achieve and help build confidence.
Eighty-four per cent believed sport and physical activity brought people together and created a sense of belonging.
Anton Nadilo reckons structured extracurricular activities have given his 9-year-old daughter, Marina, the opportunity to thrive.
Marina is busy every day of the week, with at least one and sometimes two activities.
Her main pursuit is swimming, which she does competitively, and she’s in the pool training at least three times a week after school. Sometimes she’ll rise at 5am on a Wednesday for a 6am session.
In any given week she’ll also play basketball twice, soccer once and netball once, with two lunchtime practices.
On top of that she’s into all the school activities, from rippa rugby to ArtSplash.
It’s pretty intense but it’s Marina who’s driving all these activities, says Nadilo, of Eastbourne, Lower Hutt. ‘‘It’s fun. She enjoys it.’’ Aside from the pure enjoyment she gets from it, she’s learning about teamwork and enjoying the socialisation and camaraderie, he says.
‘‘She’s meeting kids from other areas and developing a network of other friends.
‘‘She’s learning to understand the dynamics of playing in a team while grasping the fact that the individual stuff – mainly the swimming – requires her to rely on her own persistence and focus. How well she performs is not on anyone but herself.’’ Marina is super-competitive. ‘‘I certainly encourage Marina and probably push her pretty hard to be the best she can be – I’ll be honest about that. But, Marina is inherently driven to succeed and is willing to put in the work and effort required to excel at anything she tries. Despite that, she is a really good loser but loves to win. Winning drives her.’’
Nadilo says he’s aware of that fine line between activities being driven by parents and the child.
If Marina wasn’t having fun, she wouldn’t be doing all these things, he says. Her high-energy activity schedule has given her confidence and taught her resilience.
‘‘You are going to lose sometimes – it’s about learning what you need to do to get better and win, because most kids have a desire to be the best.’’
He’s confident that the work ethic she is developing is being translated into other areas of her life, including her schoolwork.
‘‘If you allow kids to play on their own terms they grow in resilience, in independence, they build their creativity and problem-solving and risk management skills.’’ Associate Professor Scott Duncan, AUT, left