Family spaces should be central to our society
On a sunny Sunday, the soul of any big city transfers from its offices to its parks. In London, you’ll find cheerful but weary crowds of tourists, groups of friends holding birthday picnics, elderly couples on benches, young lovers on the grass, hipsters using disposable barbecues and the odd child chasing a pigeon.
Go to a city park on Sunday in the developing world and there is one overwhelming theme: children. I was recently in Mexico City’s Chapultepec park on an ordinary Sunday and the atmosphere was like that of a carnival. Hundreds of booths lined the main drag offering face painting, sweets, freshly fried plantain crisps, ice cream, plastic toys, balloons, scooters, balls and a sort of headdress made from a fluffy toy monkey.
Families were out in droves and excited, roundfaced children were darting this way and that to survey everything on offer, sniggering, shouting and squabbling. Their parents walked more slowly with dazed, happy expressions on their faces.
The main pond, its water an inexplicable fluorescent green, was choc-a-bloc with pedal boats. This was the teenagers’ domain, many holding out smartphones to capture the throngs on the bank. Away from the crowds, poorer families sat peacefully on the grass, while their children played.
London’s parks are certainly better manicured, but the festive atmosphere in Chapultepec made me realise how rarely families take over major spaces in Britain. Part of the reason, of course, is that the UK simply has fewer children. Britain’s fertility rate is below replacement at 1.8 births per mother, and the proportion of our population under 14 years of age is 18 per cent (without immigration, it would be much lower). Mexico’s fertility rate is 2.2, and the proportion of its population under 14 is 26 per cent.
It isn’t just about the numbers though. In much of Europe, we’ve developed a culture that’s hostile to families. Children’s noise and mess is hived off into zoo-like family restaurants and fenced park playgrounds, where it explodes unfettered by wider society. Meanwhile, childcare costs have rocketed and new mothers are some of Britain’s loneliest people. Mexico’s women certainly have other problems – their employment rate is just 44 per cent, versus 70 per cent here – but perhaps we could learn something from their Sunday strolls. A society with no space for families is a sadder, harsher one.