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According to a new survey, 72{a18c87a46add82dbee5e4fa4c0cab30d5f6e3bbf78c3f52c3c01413f7f531a16} of parents think their kids don’t get as much of this as the parents did during their childhood.

 

Free time or unstructured time

 

Most parents don’t think their kids have as much free time and unstructured play as the parents did during their own childhood…….and they’re right! The average kid today gets about 30 minutes of free, unstructured time a day, an all-time historic low. An increase in screen time is mostly to blame but so is the over-structured and over-scheduled lives we all lead these days. Helicopter parenting is also partially to blame as over 50{a18c87a46add82dbee5e4fa4c0cab30d5f6e3bbf78c3f52c3c01413f7f531a16} of parents say they still want to have influence over their kids’ free time and schedule things for them to do. Sometimes kids need to figure out how to entertain themselves and what to do without any instructions. Do your kids have enough free time? How much did you have?

– Dave O’Brien

 

Photo Credit: BrianAJackson/Thinkstock