Kids aren’t climbing trees nearly as much anymore - why?

📸 My kid climbs a tree; I climb a tree a few years earlier.

By Sue Cardwell

🌳 Only 20% of Auckland children regularly climb trees, down from 31% in 2015 🌳

So shows new research from the Healthy Auckland Together (HAT) Play Working Group.

When I was a kid I roamed outside of the garden gate to climb trees and hoon around on my bike with my friends - without parental chaperoning. Little did I know it, but I was learning about nature, independence and inventive creativity. My own child has learned well that she must fear the very streets which were the canvas for my games of bulldog, tag, and an abundance of make-believe worlds. Parents aren't wrong to teach their kids that streets are dangerous. Bigger cars, more of them, driving more of our short trips: streets just aren’t places for play any more. Studies find kids roam 80-90% less far than they used to. We've imprisoned our kids in a cage of roads.

Losing out on independent neighbourhood play means losing out on a bunch of other benefits too. Researchers have found that kids' independent mobility increases physical activity levels, helps children acquire a sense of identity, improves their wayfinding, builds neighbourhood relationships, and helps build confidence, self-esteem and social skills.

HAT's findings show a huge cultural shift for just a decade. 46% of Auckland parents feel as if they are always driving their child to an organised sport or activity (up from 26% in 2015). 

HAT has released the research in time for Play Week which is being celebrated this week. Isn't it wild that we have to create Play Week to get us all playing? 

The researchers say a few interventions would help our kids get more spontaneous play. The key one, I believe, is to "create safer and more playable streets, including traffic calming, low-traffic neighbourhoods and safe walking and cycling infrastructure." There's wide support for this every time it's measured. Almost all of us would like our own street to have less traffic. (When people speak in favour of enabling traffic flow, they want it to happen elsewhere.)  

Given a choice, most of us would want freedom for our children, over fear of traffic. The world that 20th century transport planners created prioritises cars as our main way of getting around. It hasn't happened by accident. It isn't inevitable. We can choose better ways of getting around, and better childhoods with them.

I had the pleasure of working on All Aboard's Better Moves report, which pulls together what actually works in transport. Two of the 11 most effective interventions speak straight to this: more street space for walking, cycling and public transport, and streets designed for people and nature, with more trees and planting. The report is a great opening for speaking to your local councillors when you ask for their help to bring play back to our neighbourhoods.

Let's choose better. Our children deserve the freedom to roam that we enjoyed.