Playground!

My kids don't get to go as often as they would like to go. We were going about once a week, but we have not been in a few weeks now. My daughter I guess gets to go more often. Her dad lives across the street from a park. When I take the kids the amount of time we spend there varies greatly. Sometimes it is 15 minutes and sometimes it is an hour. It depends on the weather, the amount of time we have, and how crowded it is.

My mom takes my nephew to the playground pretty much anytime he's over (which is weekly or more). Truth is, he'll never get tired of it and it's a good way to get him out of the house for a bit! We laugh at him though because we will go all the way there and he'll spend 10 minutes playing with his stroller and 10 minutes playing with his snack, etc. He definitely plays on the slides and such, but it's funny that he always spends time with items he could have payed with at home! Overall it's good to give kids variety as much as you can and I say take them to the park every day if you can manage. Kids, like my nephew, get bored sitting around the house all day. There's only so much they can do. So take them anywhere else - the mall, the playground, the grocery store even, and they'll not get as bored when they are at home. I agree about other kids though - it's best to have the whole thing to yourself or just a few other kids, as long as they are similar in age.

Our yard isn't real big but the kids have a swing set and a little tykes slide. We are getting them a sandbox soon too. There are two playground within walking distance from us. One is at the community grove. It is small. The other is at the school. It is small too. We live in a pretty small town. There usually isn't anyone there when we go. The one in the next town is bigger. We don't go there very often. I get bothered when I take them there and there are older kids like teenagers running around on the play equipment. They chase each other and don't watch the little ones playing. My kids are content to play in our yard so I'm good with that. If we go to the small ones in town we stay about an hour or so then everyone is ready to go back home.

I don't have kids yet although my wife is currently expecting. This being the case we don't really go to playgrounds although I guess we will be starting to do so soon!

Very rarely, we have a massive garden and we have a 12ft trampoline in it so the kids go on that a lot. I also plan to get some more things for them for next year. We have a park just about ten minutes down the road but it is a bit boring really not much to do there. I think they probably have more fun in their own garden than anywhere!

We have a play system in the back yard, however the kids still enjoy going to a play ground that is close to the house form time to time. I am like you and can not stand for others to push my children around. I always remind my kids of our rules before we get there and well if I see another child that is clearly being overly aggressive I will remind my kids of the rules very loud so the parents can here me. I know passive aggressive but it does get their attention. I do not tolerate my children being to aggressive with others children in any way shape or form, there is no hitting, no pushing etc, if there is we go home. I do not understand how parents can go to a public place and allow their children to behave in this matter. we have rules, we follow them. I get very tickled at my children when they tell other kids the rules. It is kind of cute.