That was one of the phrases of summer when we were children "Mom, I'm going to the street to play with friends." Mom was in charge of putting on a snack sandwich and marking the time to return home for dinner.
The afternoon was ours, the children, and the street too. Not now, now we've almost banned them from playing in the street and maybe it's something they should recover, For your own good.
It is clear that we have all changed, families, citizens and cities, but something that dehumanizes us and makes things very difficult for us is precisely that we design our cities thinking only of the fluidity of road traffic. Cars are the kings of the streets and this is one of the reasons that has expelled children from them.
It is true that before families were more numerous and finding playmates at home was much simpler than now that at the most they have two children and most only one, it is much more complicated to play with other children. play in the street with the other boys in the neighborhood?
It is true that before to play you had to meet somewhere, physically, you had to go and be together.
Now that thanks to (or because of) technology has changed. We can play alone at home against the machine, or alone at home but with friends we do not know physically if we prefer to play online mode, is this socially enough?
And one last factor that experts say takes children from the streets is the fear of their parents. Some say we are a generation of overprotective parents who are raising future insecure and dependent adults. I do not know if it is exaggerated but it is true that children do not play in the street also partly because of the fear that parents have to do so.
What can we do to recover spaces in our own cities? How can we show our municipal rulers that we want things done differently?
UNICEF: Child Friendly Cities
From this NGO they have been working for years to claim and improve the living conditions in the cities of children and adolescents with more respectful municipal policies in which standards and programs are developed where the Convention on the Rights of the Child is taken into account.
Cities that listen to children through the Councils of Children, in which the ideas, voices and opinions of children about the city are heard and valued.It is not something that should surprise us, a few months ago we were already talking about the initiative of a girl to dedicate a roundabout in her city to the figure of refugees from the war in Syria.
With this concept of “Child Friendly Cities” it is argued that all children are protected from exploitation, abuse or violence. That they have the same opportunities beyond their origin, their religion, their gender, their disability or their level of income. That they participate actively, that they receive basic health and education services and that they can move around the city, walk freely and safely through the streets.
The School Road: return the street to children
More and more municipalities are joining this initiative that promotes that children can go to school alone, in a group and on foot, without their parents having to take them in the car.
In Spain there are already “School roads” in municipalities of San Sebastián, Seville, Barcelona, Terrasa, Segovia, Getafe and Torrelodones.
Safer routes are organized, traffic on these routes is reduced (at least during the hours when children go to and from school) and the municipality's community is involved: parents, teachers, local administrations, transport companies and merchants in the area through which the itinerary passes.
It is a way for children to interact, know each other, create relationships, recover public space and they have a greater degree of autonomy than they have if they depend on their parents and the car to go to and from school.
Madrid: Children recovering spaces
For more than five months, Tuesdays are the days in which in the center of Madrid, in the neighborhood of La Latina, a lung opens to the imagination of the little ones.
A space tailored to them and not full of swings chosen by adults. A space in which two stones can be a treasure. The initiative aims to recover the city for citizens with spaces like this, flexible, that can be created by the children themselves, in which they can play freely and outdoors.
In this neighborhood and in this space it is possible for children of families of different nationals to interact, play and get to know each other, dream and imagine together and that the differences enrich them and do not take them away.
Tuesdays of Almendro3 from basurama on Vimeo.
Perhaps we are facing a question of will and organization rather than media because there is not much that is needed to create public spaces like this where children can play freely.
We are not realizing that we organize their leisure time as our parents did not organize it for us and we eliminate the possibility of “doing nothing” or doing what their imagination, desire or lack is asking them at that time. of them why not?
Photos | iStockphoto
In Babies and more | The good weather arrives: time to play in the street | 23 "things" we did when we were little and now we don't do |
In Xataka | There is an epidemic of myopia and scientists only find one remedy: go outside
