On some days, it's close. I think she gets 1h at daycare and usually 1h at the playground after school. Doesn't meet my ~forest school hippie~ ideals but ideal isn't realistic when both parents work and toddlers are high-maintenance to get outside.

Anonymous wrote:So going outside for a few hours a day is “intensive parenting”?!

Yes, because sending a three year old out alone is unthinkable now, when it used to be that 2 year old were tied to clotheslines so mom could clean.

I clean with my little kids following me and give them jobs or they play independently. It’s the only way to preserve sanity.

Are kids even outside that much when they go to daycare?

A lot of the kids are at large playgrounds you drive to, and more often after school.


But it really varies by area. I found a lot more kids outside when I moved to Baltimore county than when I lived in PG county. Also depends on the mosquitoes and amount of shade on the specific playground!

It averages to about that over the course of the year. We’re outside as much as possible and have since the oldest one’s birth.

Yes! This is part of why I decided to SAH. Barring really horrible weather, we spend as much time outside as possible. One of the very few nice things about Covid is how it forced lots of stuff outside. We do library story time and a gym class outside now.

So going outside for a few hours a day is “intensive parenting”?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol didn't our parents just let us go outside to play so we wouldn't bug them?

now are we expected to be right by their sides while they do this?

Right. Intensive parenting strikes again.

I’m all about getting kids out into the yard but there’s housework to be done. I do that when my kids are awake.

Nah, my parents wouldn't let me out without supervision as a preschooler. My siblings and I got unlimited Nickelodeon instead.