When we go out, especially if we live in a city, the absence of children in the streets is increasingly striking. They don't go down alone to play, it's dangerous. The streets are not friendly, cars and work have become owners of cities and life, everything seems designed for them. And is that the cities are hostile to children.
It is true that there are parks, depending on the area more or less cared for or abundant, but the general configuration of urban spaces are completely enemies of the needs of children.
I am lucky to spend half of my time in a very small coastal town, in the Natural Park of Cabo de Gata, a beautiful place and with many possibilities to play in Nature, from which I show you a small corner in the photo that Illustrate this entry. The children go out with the bike or play, bathe, explore, but even here they no longer go without adult supervision for fear of what might happen. When I come to the city, I live in a small one, with abundant green areas and very moderate traffic, quite safe but ungrateful for a child's free exploration needs.
The cities and children
But in Madrid and in other capitals, in the big cities, things are even more complicated. Children no longer go out alone, and I understand it, but they have lost that crazy freedom that allowed them to explore their abilities, make mischief, get into the bushes, escape to the limits of safety. And we would have to think that we have deprived them of an innate need.
All that comes together to limit their lives to enclosed spaces: schools, pavilions where they do guided sports activities, more extracurricular classes to fill their time, play at home alone or spend many hours distracted with television or computer adventures. But the city, the city has become a hostile space for its growth.
My childhood on the street
When I was a child, there was possibly less awareness of the dangers that children play alone in the street. I went down with my friends to the park and we went around the neighborhood, and even, from the age of eight, I crossed alone to the school, which was seen from the window of my house.
In summer, in the town where we had a house, I left with the bike to run adventures along the roads, with a snack and all afternoon to be free and get in, let's admit it, in quite a lot of trouble. I climbed trees, lost myself in the field, caught the storm and took refuge under the bales of straw, never thinking of hunters, ticks or kidnappers of children.
I don't know what the ideal middle ground would be, possibly less populated cities, with fewer cars and much more natural open space, not only limited parking lots, but large areas where running and playing pirates, Indians, explorers, shipwrecks and even battalions.
We were not afraid of rain, or wind, or cold, or heat. Nothing left us locked up at home and that I, at least, was a child of spending many hours reading and dreaming, but I also had the possibility to go out and play, whatever time I did and get sweaty and full of earth home with the Smile from ear to ear completely exhausted of experiences and adventures.
What children would need
The children would need run on the grass, and not have a sign that prohibits stepping on the grass. Trees to climb. Streams in which to get wet. Mud, field, rabbits, partridges, earth balls, new roads where to invent a trip to the unknown. Those things that seem impossible but that little human beings need. Our cities are hostile to children, they are not designed for them, nor designed for their real needs, and that, in the long run, I am sure it pays.
There is a UN initiative called Child Friendly Cities. Despite being insufficient, unless the city where we live meets these characteristics is a basic thing. Adapting this to our reality in Spain, it would be necessary for all cities to worry about having green spaces with plants and animals where children could play.
A beautiful park with restricted access should not be enough, designed only to be contemplated or strolled. The city should also be equipped with mechanisms by which children could participate with their opinions in daily life, freely exposing their needs and desires, so as not to be, by their age, second-class citizens to whom there is no willingness to listen and attend.
It is one of the things that gives me the most anger, those beautiful parks, with a lawn and flowers, but with signs that prohibit access to the green area, leaving children as simple spectators of Nature, with only a few swings to exercise your need for play and climbing.
Since the cities are hostile to childrenPerhaps the only thing left for parents is to spend their free time to provide them with free play experiences in Nature. Going to the countryside on weekends, even if we are tired. Spend the afternoon hours that the school leaves them free, instead of fulfilling a frantic schedule of homework and extracurricular classes, in the street and in the nearest free green zone.
