23 Jan 2009
Q: In a nutshell, what is Playborhood?
A: Playborhood is an online community devoted to encouraging parents to let their children go outside and play in their neighborhoods.
Q: Why did you start the site?
A: When my first child was born, I started thinking deeply about how to give him a better childhood than I had. After looking at enough kids' lives, I came to the conclusion that it was practically impossible to provide as good a childhood as I had, and it was not a question of money. I have much more money than my parents had.
That realization angered me. I just couldn't accept it.
That's why I'm running Playborhood, and in fact, I'm now writing a book about this topic to try to effect a change in attitude among parents on this subject.
Q: What was the greatest life lesson that you learned from 'free play' growing up?
A: When my family moved when I was 12, I learned that material possessions -- like beautiful homes -- are far less valuable than great neighborhoods with great people. I should explain: The house I lived in between the ages of 3 and 12 was pretty mediocre, but the neighborhood was fantastic! There were over a dozen kids right around my age, most of them good friends, who lived nearby.We played outside practically every day.
Initially, when we moved to the new house, I was quite excited about it because my parents were so excited about how much nicer the house was. Unfortunately, the move turned out to be a disaster. My most vivid memories of the first two years there are liying on the sofa in our beautiful family room every day after school, munching on saltines and ginger ale while watching TV. As it turned out, the house was everything my parents had promised, but that turned out to be worthless to me. Kids didn't play in my new neighborhood, and so the quality of my life suffered.
Q: My top five favorite things to do as a kid were…
- Play pick-up games (football, softball, basketball, kill-the-guy-with-the-ball) in the neighborhood with my buddies
- Build things with wood (tree house, shacks, furniture, etc.)
- Go hiking at the Weiss farm
- Go golfing with my dad
- Ride bikes
Q: Is there a cost for a childhood that is dominated by tech-play and organized sport/ activities?
Absolutely. The cost of tech play is that kids are inside sitting down alone rather than outside running around with other kids. The cost of organized activities is that kids play best when they don't have adults standing over them telling them what to do.
Q: What advice do you have for parents whose children prefer tech-play to time outside?
This is a tough one because I have two very young kids (4-1/2 and 1) who've never seen a video game, operated a computer, or watched a television. I guess I'd say, try to limit your children's time with tech, but before you do that, work hard to come up with something else to do that's fun for the kids. In other words, add before you subtract.
Q: Parting thought: You have one hour of free time with your sons. What do you do?
These days, provided there's daylight and it's not pouring rain outside, we'd bring a net out to the middle of the street in front of our house and play street hockey. Of course, my one-year-old would not really play hockey, but he'd have a great time watching and chasing down the hockey ball.
| Mike Lanza runs Playborhood.com, an online community that encourages parents to let their kids go outside and play in their neighborhoods. A serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Mike has founded and run five software/Internet companies and holds an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University. He lives in Menlo Park, CA with his wife and three children (5, 2 and newborn). |
