How Often Do You Go to the Park?

[AndyJoy]

I took DS to the park 3 times a week when he was an infant and 5-7 days a week when he was 1-2.  Now we go about 3 times a week.  We keep this up pretty much year round except for the 113 degree+ weeks in the summer or the 45-60 mph wind weeks.  I strongly suspect we'll either be playing at the park or biking each morning before schoolwork when he's school age.  He has a major need for movement!

 

 

[I.Dup.]

We have been through seasons where we went daily, esp. when we had just 2 little kids. Now that we have 7, we rarely go, even though we live right down the road. My older ones are getting old enough to walk there and play on their own, though. :)

[Mom0012]

Never, anymore.  When my kids were preschool/kindergarten age, 3 hours a day, every day, at least.  Very frequently up until my son was about 8 or 9.  I had a friend with two boys who spent many hours on the playground with me.  Gosh, some days it almost felt like a job.  I can remember it being really cold and just dreading going, but my son needed the activity so badly and the prior commitment to my friend always got me there.

[Excelsior! Academy]

For those of you who have or had several small children and took them to the park often, can you share how that worked logistically?

 

I have a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a newborn. We have a great park in our neighborhood that we can easily walk to. I can get the three kids there just fine, but then things get sketchy. The 4 year old can handle most of the equipment fine on his own, but sometimes he makes unsafe choices and I don't want to let him too far out of sight. The 2 year old is a safety nightmare on the equipment - he can climb up to even the highest platforms on his own, but he rarely looks where he is going, grossly overestimates his skills, wanders in front of kids on swings, etc. The newborn is normally content in his stroller (and hates to be worn in a carrier), but that means I can't leave him alone to go up on the structures to supervise the other two.

 

In some ways the park is great - brand new play structure, a walking trail, a splash pad, etc. In other ways the park is far from ideal - no fenced in area to keep small kids contained, tempting looking play areas spread out across the large park, a LOT of people using the park all day which makes me very nervous about getting too far from the stroller.

 

My kids are well-behaved and follow instructions very well (for their ages), but the park is still a stressful place for all of us. I'd love some advice from some of you who have BTDT.

 

Thanks,

Wendy

Truthfully, when all of mine were those ages it was a lot of work for *me*. I still have several those ages, but now I have older children too. Now I can sit. In a year or two it will be much easier for you.

[Jennifer in MI]

When the boys were little?  Almost daily.  

 

Now?  The older boys take my dd almost daily.  It helps that we have three parks within walking/biking distance from our house!

[happypamama]

Not very often. It's far enough that we'd have to drive, although DH and the big kids have biked there, and it's nice but not very big. It is just as easy for the kids to play in our large backyard and on our swingset. Now, sometimes we will take dinner over there and fly kites or just enjoy a change of scenery. And we go to a bigger park with woods and a creek to explore a few times in the summer with our homeschool group.

[KrissiK]

Hardly ever. My kids don't like to play at the park. They are very weird.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Do people define "park" as "playground"?  We have parks where we hike, bike, explore the beach and all sorts of things.  

[Aspasia]

Wow, I feel like the worst mom ever. We go about once a month. BUT my kids spend 3+ hours every single day playing outside in our yard--riding bikes, digging, drawing, building, gathering, climbing, etc.

 

We don't have parks within walking distance. Kind of a bummer, and I hate loading my kids up in the van for anything, even fun stuff. It's just so much easier to open the door and shoo them outside. :D

[Murphy101]

Oh I was thinking playground type park. I am on the road nearly every day multiple times a day taking a kid or getting a kid to or from somewhere. A few times a week, there isn't enough time between pick up and drop offs to bother going back home, so I'll pull to a park and let them burn some energy there for 20-40 minutes before hitting the next destination.

 

But our town has lots and lots of parks. I think there are 1-2 just about every 1-3 miles. And most are decently maintained and nice to use.

[Wheres Toto]

We used to go at least once a week, when we were involved with Mom's Club and then with homeschool groups.  Now we have a pretty big swing set with a fort in our backyard.  It's a lot easier to just push them out the backdoor.  Plus since the homeschool group isn't doing park days as much, with school in session all the kids at the park are much younger than my guys.