Maximizing Your Time at the Park as a Parent

When the weather is warm enough, we’re at the park almost every evening with our kids. Usually only one of my wife or I will take the kids to the park to play so the other can get things done at home. My kids love to run around and play with the other kids - interaction with other children is really what they love the most. 

Watch your kids

Don’t completely ignore your children at the park. You don’t want them running off or being naughty. Throwing, hitting, and so forth will get my child reprimanded. The older they get, the less you should have to worry about these bad behaviors.

However, don’t be a helicopter parent. Let your child learn and explore on their own. My youngest child is over 2 now, and I mostly let him play on the playground by himself at this point. Up and down the stairs, on to the slide, running around with some of the other children, watching what the older kids are doing, and trying to get in with them sometimes - these are all things that he likes to do.

When I’m right there with my son, holding his hand or walking behind him, other kids don’t try to interact with him - they’re too scared of me. While I may seem kind of scary, this is true for most kids and parent strangers - my son won’t try to interact with the other kids if there’s a parent right there. Step back, and at least watch from a distance once they are old enough. Is your child going to fall and hit something or hurt themselves? Probably. Your child will learn from these experiences though about being more careful - you won’t be able to prevent every fall and injury.

So, as your child gets older, you’re going to have a little more leeway on what you do at the park. If you’re with someone else (spouse or partner) then I’d highly recommend a good conversation. The ideas below are assuming that you don’t have someone else with you.

Get out and play with them

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If you are looking to have an active life, sitting on the bench and looking at your phone or just watching your child is counter-productive to that. Get up and actually play with them.

Because we’re at the park so often, a lot of times there are no other kids there to play with. This is the ideal time to actually run around with your child. I like to get on the playground and play a game of tag with my kids. Run away from them, chase after them, and keep yourself moving.

We like to make sure that we have a soccer ball and frisbee in the car. If we don’t feel like playing on the playground, then we’ll get one of our toys to get out and play. Kick the ball around or work on throwing the frisbee with your kids. Chase after the frisbee yourself - don’t just make your kids do it.

This is by far the best way for me to decompress or lighten my mood after a long day. Whenever I run around with my kids, I quickly forget about what may be stressing me out, and puts me in a better mood. I’m sure it’s the increase in oxygen flow, but spending the time playing with my kids is a great bonus.

Do pull-ups or other exercises

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You know those monkey bars they have at the playground? Those are great for doing pull-ups on. Don’t block other children from using the monkey bars. But if no one else is using them, feel free to work on using them for some exercises. If you can’t do a pull-up, or feel uncomfortable trying in front of others, doing a dead hang will get you a really good workout as well - it will especially help with your grip strength. Pull-ups are my favorite to do at the playground, but other body weight exercises are also done easily using the equipment they have around.

Now, not everyone will be comfortable doing these at the playground, which I totally get. I’m a bit of an oddball on that front. However, you can get on your feet and walk. I like to walk around the outside of the playground, or pace back and forth along one edge - just depends on the park layout. Just something to keep moving while my kids play.

Bring a book to read or listen to

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If you’d prefer not to be in the way or too visible to others, then another idea is to bring a book to read. I almost always have my Kindle with me when I go anywhere in case there is any downtime and I can get in a few pages while I have time. The hard part about this is that it’s going to be hard to get more than a couple of minutes of uninterrupted reading in. If you have a small or young child, you should be checking on them fairly often to make sure they haven’t run across the street while you were not watching.

Another option is an audiobook. It will be much easier to keep your eyes on a small child while listening to the latest and greatest book from your favorite author. You could potentially combine both moving and listening to an audiobook at the same time. Bring some headphones to listen to your book while you walk around the playground. This is easier when your kids are older and you don’t have to keep as close of an eye on them.

Plan your next day out

If you don’t have a book, don’t want to get up and move around, but still want to do something productive, plan out what your next day (or week) is going to look like. Put down what you’re going to do, and at what time. Don’t let the time waste away (too much) by just looking at your phone and doing nothing. Get ahead on the next day ahead.

Conclusion

There are a lot of different ways to make a trip to the park both fun and productive. If you want to get a step up in your goals, don’t let the time you spend there be unproductive.