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Fellow parent Quek Jia Ling, 37,<\/span> has created a similar regimen. Her two children, aged four and seven, split their afternoons between enrichment classes such as dance, swimming and abacus, and supervised play.<\/span><\/p>\n They are allowed half an hour of TV time after school each day but no internet at all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Whenever possible on the weekends, Ms Quek takes her children out to explore playgrounds or to museum programmes designed for kids, where they can learn in air-conditioned and safe spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n “Like others, my kids spend a lot of time in school and enrichment classes, making it hard to meet up with friends. The hot weather makes it even harder to take them outside,” she said, adding that while she values unstructured play, safety around strangers remains a concern.<\/p>\n These three children live out daily routines familiar in many Singaporean households today, where long school days and packed enrichment schedules leave little time for free play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to a 2024 study by non-profit Suncare SG of more than 1,000 parents with children aged three to six, almost one in five reported that their child spends less than an hour outdoors each day on weekends. The survey did not ask respondents about weekday playtimes.<\/span><\/p>\n CNA TODAY found that\u00a0even when children are outdoors, much of their play time is structured, usually in the form of sports training or supervised play dates.<\/span><\/p>\n Globally, children’s time for unstructured outdoor play has also been on the decline for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n A policy brief by the Alliance for Childhood, an international nonprofit organisation advocating for children’s health and well-being, reported that by 2010, children in the United States were spending 50 per cent less time in free outdoor activities than they did in the 1970s.<\/span><\/p>\n Based on interviews with parents and youths, it seems that children are also not even playing with their friends online.<\/p>\n Most parents place strict screen-time restrictions on their pre-teens, so they have limited time online. Only when the kids grow older do they have the freedom to spend more time talking to their friends online, and do so.<\/p>\n Things were vastly different just a generation ago, which the parents themselves can attest to.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms Quek, recalling her own upbringing in the 1990s, said she spent\u00a0<\/span>at least one hour outdoors each day, visiting the playground near her home, <\/span>with her mother nearby to keep watch.<\/p>\n “<\/span>But\u00a0as compared to my children, my social interactions in the past felt more spontaneous for sure. Today, playdates have to be scheduled around enrichment activities, and usually happen indoors.”<\/span><\/p>\n Back then, it was as simple as stepping out of the flat and spotting a familiar face in the estate, she said. Someone would call out, “Play?” and within minutes they’d be downstairs, drifting between the playground and whichever corner of the neighbourhood they felt drawn to.<\/span><\/p>\n The contrast isn’t lost on her when it comes to outdoor time: “Sometimes, I feel bad that my children have been spending so much time indoors, so I try to bring them out more.”<\/p>\n Dr G Kaveri, a senior lecturer in early childhood education at Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), noted that these days many parents tend to choose structured activities as they are perceived to “offer safety, supervision and predictability”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While structured programmes have their benefits, Dr Isabelle Gaffney, founder of counselling practice A Heapful of Hope and an adjunct lecturer from the National Institute of Education (NIE) said that children also need time to play and interact freely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Children who only see their friends at school may be limited in their ability to advance these friendships unless they get to grow them outside of school. During preteen and teen years when the support and acceptance of peers are key, missing out on time together can curtail their main outlet for sharing emotions and cause them to feel left out,” she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Gaffney, who is also a registered play therapist and licensed counsellor (USA), added that this can significantly affect their ability to foster, deepen and repair valuable friendships during a critical stage of self and social development.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n