August 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 38

FUTURE LEADERS

Family Leisure and the Play Desert
Park and recreation agencies could better serve their communities with familyfocused programming
By Iryna Sharaievska, Ph.D.

I

t is not surprising to anyone that families who spend more time together
are happier, stronger and demonstrate better-functioning relationships.
On a similar note, we know that the healthier these family activities are,
the more likely the entire group is to live a better, more satisfactory life. Despite the fact that we are familiar with the importance of healthy family time,
many families are often left to their own devices and have few programs or
settings in which to participate in leisure as a family. While this is not a problem for some families, it might lead to sedentary behaviors - mainly increased screen time - in others.
As a field that aspires to be on
the forefront of health promotion
and community building, we rarely
provide opportunities for families
to recreate together. Look at any
community around the U.S. and
you will find programs for children,
teenagers and youth, senior citizens,
women, women with babies, and

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Parks & Recreation

sometimes families. You will also
find that the opportunities that do
attempt to foster family leisure are
often limited to providing a place for
families to be entertained by others
- such as at a sporting event, art
fair or movie in the park - rather
than engaging in activities together.
Very rarely can you spot a program

| AU G U S T 2 0 1 4 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

that is designed to provide families
with opportunities to recreate and
have shared family experiences in an
activity together.
It is easy to understand - serving
families is a rather challenging task.
Differences in age and maturity level between different family members, their level of physical, mental
and emotional abilities, problems
with scheduling time that would
work for everyone, and issues related to pre-existing relationships
between family members are just a
few problems that recreation professionals serving families will face.
We also often assume that family
time will happen organically on
its own in the backyard or the park



August 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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