Kids Are Spending Less Time Outside Than Prison Inmates

by Guest Sun Mar 05, 2017 1:39 pm

When prisoners are spending more time outdoors than children, it's time to start making changes.

Kids Are Spending Less Time Outside Than Prison Inmates Qvwka-kids-not-going-outside

Kids Are Spending Less Time Outside Than Prison Inmates Qvwka-kids-not-going-outside

Photo credit: Iain Masterton / Alamy

According to a new study from the United Kingdom, 74% of children spent less than 60 minutes playing outside each day. A fifth of the children did not play outside at all on an average day, the poll found.
"The truth is we are enclosing our children," Mark Sears, an advocate for 'wild play,' told The Guardian. "We are stifling their ability to be free, to be at their best as children and it is having significant impacts."
A different survey of 12,000 parents in 10 countries, who have children aged 5 to 12, found that one-third of kids spend under 30 minutes outside each day.

"Parents see the value of outdoor play and still it doesn't happen," Sears added. He says the fear of strangers, traffic or accidents deterred parents from allowing children to play outside, as did lack of time due to busy school and work lives.

The short film "Free the Kids - Dirt is Good" reveals how important it is for inmates to have their outdoor time on a daily basis and how surprised they are to learn that kids get even less. The inmates, who live at the Wabash Valley Correctional Institute, a maximum security facility in Indiana, describe daily outdoors time as "probably the most important part of my day." It's an opportunity to "take all the frustration and all your problems and just leave them out there. It keeps my mind right, keeps my body strong." In the words of one Wabash security guard, "If you don't have to throw the kids in the bathtub, they haven't played hard enough."

Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/2037/Kids-Are-Spending-Less-Time-Outside-Than-Prison-Inmates#sf2l6pcPK1Ui4q3I.99

by Syl Sun Mar 05, 2017 1:49 pm

It doesn't surprise me in the least.
The main reason kids are so fat nowadays is the simple fact that they do hardly any exercise.

by 'Wolfie Sun Mar 05, 2017 2:04 pm

There is so much that those kids kept inside too much, are missing out on :

* general health
* overall fitness, flexibility, motor skill development
* immune system health
* vit D deficiency
* eyesight health (myopia is more prevalent among those who don't spend enough time outside)
* socialising
* just plain old "having fun" -- running wild, unemcumbered and free..

And, that perennial age-old problem that anybody -- not just kids -- who spends too much time cloistered and "cacooned" away inside, in artificial and protected environments, tends to develop that disconnect from the natural world, and natural systems.

Leading not only to the numerous health and fitness problems mentioned already -- but also adds to the denialist, anti-science, increased gullibilty, self-entitled mentality, where many people today simply can't relate to (and often don't even care..) what is happening to the natural world. sunny

by Guest Sun Mar 05, 2017 2:11 pm

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

There is so much that those kids kept inside too much, are missing out on :

* general health
* overall fitness, flexibility, motor skill development
* immune system health
* vit D deficiency
* eyesight health (myopia is more prevalent among those who don't spend enough time outside)
* socialising
* just plain old "having fun" -- running wild, unemcumbered and free..

And, that perennial age-old problem that anybody -- not just kids -- who spends too much time cloistered and "cacooned" away inside, in artificial and protected environments, tends to develop that disconnect from the natural world, and natural systems.

Leading not only to the numerous health and fitness problems mentioned already -- but also adds to the denialist, anti-science, increased gullibilty, self-entitled mentality, where many people today simply can't relate to (and often don't even care..) what is happening to the natural world.

+1

by veya_victaous Sun Mar 05, 2017 10:36 pm

the problem is fear/emotions out weighing logic has become acceptable.

Parents fear and rather than accepting that their is some risk, stop kids taking risks like going out on their bikes and riding around the neighbor hood.

People are addicted to fear and it has become acceptable, they want a bogey man to fear and blame their cowardice on. so the paper sell them fears.

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Kids Are Spending Less Time Outside Than Prison Inmates

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