Parents are turning their gardens into mini-playgrounds in an attempt to lure their children outside, according to new research.
The Britain at Home report from Lloyds Bank Insurance revealed that UK homeowners with children have spent an average of £803* in the past year on their gardens, almost a third more than the national average of £587, as more than one in three (37%) of parents say their children don’t spend enough time outside.
The study of 2,000 UK homeowners found that providing an alternative to TV and the computer appears to be driving this spend, with parents snapping up outdoor activity items, such as trampolines (32% of parents with a garden now own one), paddling pools (30%), slides and swings (both 26%) and even sandpits and Wendy houses (21% and 20% respectively).
In a sign of how childhood has changed over time, just 14% of parents think their children spend more time outside than they did at the same age. Among those parents who felt that their children weren’t taking advantage of their own ‘mini playgrounds’, 43% blamed the draw of computer games.
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