Are we overlooking the humble park?

Are we overlooking the humble park?

A visit to the local park is possibly quite an underrated trip out these days for families.  In the midst of busy life it’s perhaps the reluctant choice when there is no other choice and your children need an energy outlet and they need it NOW!  Certainly some would argue the humble park trip is lower in the pecking order than a visit to a farm or an amusement park or one of the magnificent kingdom-like indoor play areas.  These vast, colourful, multi-sensory kingdoms with their grown-up zones serving a plethora of parent pleasing coffee options to compete with even the most trendy high-street coffee houses (and in which, the English climate does not have to dictate the length of the outing) surely vie for our custom.  You may be reading this and thinking that you do still love the park and are loyal to its charms.  Nevertheless as your children get older, our sophisticated, high-tech world has made them less willing to want to go, opting instead to ‘WhatsApp’ their friends, create virtual parks on Sims or enjoy virtual park activities on-line such as bike riding and skateboarding.

 

 

In my case my 9 year old son is still keen to get out into the fresh-air  but my 11 year old daughter needs more persuading of the benefits of this past-time that frankly, she would prefer stayed in ‘past-times’.  However, the executive decision was made that there would be no choice and that we would all go to the park and on our bicycles to boot!  Even when your children are older, simply getting bikes out of the shed or garage and helmets on takes some time.  Inevitably, one or two interruptions  such as helmet adjustment, searching for a lost glove (if indeed gloves have been remembered and if forgotten require a return journey home to prevent the biting January air from completely numbing small fingers wrapped around bike handles) will take place on the short five minute cycle ride.  All such accumulative minutiae can be off-putting for the most determined park-enthusiast parent, but we persevere.

As a mum, I do see the value in being outside and getting active as a lifestyle choice for myself and my family but I have been tempted on occasions to go for the easy option.  On a cold winter’s day, to spare my Raynaud suffering fingers from inescapable trauma and think, perhaps the all-singing all-dancing wall-climbing, ball-pooling, abseiling, gigantic multi-slide and colourful tube laden indoor arena-esk play ‘zone’ is a more appealing proposition – or easier still stay at home and put the Wii on!  The easier option was not an option for us on the occasion I am about to recall, as not only was this good for the children it was going to be good for my husband and I too.  I can be prone to cabin-fever if I stay indoors all day so on this particular beautiful, bright, January Saturday we set off and we were not disappointed (of course we weren’t you can see I’m building to something good). 

Our park has received a large financial investment over the last year to improve and refurbish and its impact is palpable.  This was our first visit since much of the work had been completed and it was a real pleasure to enjoy the wonderful wide paths allowing for families like ours to pass by safely on bikes without catapulting the fast approaching dog or small zig-zagging toddler across the expansive lake.  All around the park it was like witnessing a scene from a Disney movie; happy families and friends enjoying being with each other in the glorious winter sun – we even came across ‘Percy the Park Keeper’ with his little wheelbarrow.  Yet this idyllic scene: young boys attempting stunts on skateboards; friends walking along by the lake chatting happily; playful squirrels chasing each other up century old oak trees; shouts of excitement echoing across the open-spaces as children whizzed through the air on the zip-wire, were actions not staged by anyone.  This was no fairy tale façade, dreamt up for the next big Hollywood animation, nor a virtual world - this was real life, real people, real time, otherwise known as reality.

Our family trip to the humble park was a huge hit - the shouts of excitement to be heard from the zip-wire came from our children.  We all enjoyed ourselves and like all kids, ours too relish the time spent with their parents, savouring the time we are willing to relinquish and call theirs.  I make no apology for the following, ever so slightly cheesy, American movie script-like style statement: that these precious times are what make lasting childhood memories.  By the end of our excursion, the four of us had heart rates that were pumping fast, a sense of satisfaction of a good time had by all.  Between us we had tackled a few mini-challenges including tree-climbing and navigating past a large dog whilst cycling (there’s more to this story but that’s for another time).  The simple pleasure of playing and cycling in the park with their parents never fails to gratify my hi-tech computer literate children.  Despite my numb white fingers and less than attractive ‘helmet hairstyle’ I was sporting by the end of it, I wouldn’t have swapped it for even the biggest, frothiest cappuccino in the most state-of-the-art, gigantic 21^st century play kingdom.