Where have all the girls gone?

Girls need to play in parks too

We actually had a weekend at home where it was sunny, so I took my daughter down to the park a couple of times each day to play.

There were lots of kids down there playing: football; cops and robbers; bike races; some sort of medieval battle with toy axes , swords and bows and arrows; some climbing trees. Generally larking around, with various running, climbing, crawling, skipping and jumping movements being part of playing.

Yet the whole weekend I only saw one girl in this under -13 (I am guessing) age group of 30 odd kids in their various groups. I would understand post pubescent girls being body image conscious or doing other things, but these were boys of 5-12 years old.

When I was growing up, boys and girls played outside equally– sometimes together, sometimes apart, but nowadays they seem to spend all their time indoors, or being ferried to organised activities.

Up to about 12 years old, motor skill ability is predominantly due to environmental factors such as opportunities for play, how much activity your parents do and any other sports you might participate in. After that genetics ability and environmental considerations seem to be important. This forms part of the LTAD theory.

No government initiative, no Harriet Harman style social engineering for equal sports in the 2012 Olympics will make up for the fact that a generation of girls is missing out on basic skills and activity levels that will prevent them from being able to participate in sport to any decent standard.

If they don’t go out and play, there is no point trying to force teenage girls to take up aerobics or street dance when they have not learnt how to co- ordinate their bodies from an early age.

Cops and robbers may not be a girl’s idea of fun, but surely skipping, frisbees, hide and seek and hopscotch were all good enough previously and would be of great benefit to them as well as being fun.

Time for the parents to step up and take responsibility on this one I think.