[The survey is now closed.  If you’d like, you can respond to the same survey questions, for future analysis, here.]

Over the past few months, we’ve been having lots and lots of conversations with parents about the issue children’s play.  Now, we’d like to collect your thoughts in a systematic way.  With your help, we can learn a lot that can help guide what we do here at Playborhood.

So, please CLICK HERE to complete our survey! 

We’ll be reporting results here very soon!

Wowww… Thanks sooo much for your heartfelt post, Ingrid!  Reading a post like this makes all our work on Playborhood feel worthwhile. 

And I agree wholeheartedly with your idea of people who want their kids to play figuring out a way to live together.  In fact, I’ve been thinking of ways Playborhood can make that happen.  I term this enabling “clustering” of families who want their kids to play outside.  I’m thinking that we could tackle this as a real estate information service for families.

Whattya think???

I also grew up in a neighborhood with no fences.  I *really* hate all these fences in the Bay Area.  My wife and I have been househunting for a while in Palo Alto, and I find the back yards almost always depressing.  They’re like well-manicured prisons.

I love what you’re doing in SF!!!  It seems like your kids have a great life, and you’re doing great things for other kids, too.  I would definitely like to visit sometime.  I wish we still lived there so we could join you, but we moved to Palo Alto from SF two years ago to find kid heaven in the ‘burbs.  We’re still looking…

Re your comments on play in nature versus play in neighborhoods, I have a couple of comments.  First, kids in suburbs and rural areas often have woods right by their house, so these aren’t necessarily contradictory.  I know I did when I was a kid.  Second, if the play’s not by the kid’s house (i.e. in or close to his or her neighborhood), then usually a parent needs to plan the play and provide transportation.  This often taints the experience for the kid because it has to be scheduled, and ultimately, the parent usually ends up monitoring the experience and controlling it somewhat. 

Your organization may be eliciting different behavior from parents - I certainly hope so…