One of the things I love about our neighborhood is that kids actually play outside! Years ago kids spent practically all their time outside. Remember your mother telling you “Go outside and play.” And play we did! We knew if we went in we would be put to work. Somehow my mother always had a list of things to take up our time when we couldn’t find anything to do by ourselves.
There are many health reasons to encourage outdoor play, but let me mention just one. Today’s pediatricians see many kids with low levels of the “sunshine” vitamin, D. It gets its name from the fact that the skin makes vitamin D when exposed to the sun. If kids hardly ever see the sun and those that do are bathed in sun-screen they can suffer from lack of vit. D. Consequently we see more diabetes, fractures, and depression in kids, diseases that are all more common in kids with low levels of vit. D.
But, I enjoy seeing the kids play just for the sake of seeing them play. Watching kids shoot buckets on a driveway is much more fun than watching NBA ball. And what could be better than seeing kids splash with their dogs in the creek. I must add that it’s more fun as long as I don’t have to clean the dog or the kid.
Our neighborhood is close to the high school and in the afternoons we can enjoy the music from the marching band practicing out of doors. When we can not get to the local football game or other sporting events we hear the cheering of the excited high school fans. And no, the noise doesn’t bother me, it’s “happy” noise. Maybe if we all made more happy noise and did less complaining the world would be a better place.