Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
As a parent, of course I'm around kids all the time. But before I was a parent, I would go days without seeing a child, and often months without speaking with one.
My experiences of other countries (around 30 outside North America) are from before I had kids. And I saw kids and families everywhere. The people running restaurants usually had their kids there with them, helping or just hanging out. All public places - not just schools and playground - had kids in them. In the evenings, the streets and parks in the centre of cities were packed with families strolling. How often do you see kids on Stephen Avenue Mall at 8 pm?
In North America, we segregate single adult life and family life in a way that other cultures don't.
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I think that there are a few factors. You can argue that our cities are designed differently, and we therefore have different routines. This is going on a bit of a tangent and I don't want to start arguing about urbanism and all of that latte sipping stuff. But we don't see as many kids on Stephen Avenue or even 17th Avenue because those kids don't live near there. Generally speaking, the accepted North American place for kids is in the suburbs. This is changing a little, I think, but we certainly don't see as many families walking around the central areas of cities because they just don't live there. And because of that, you don't see as many kid-friendly places popping up in those places.
I went to the Calgary Tower with my son a few weeks ago, and figured we'd stroll around downtown a bit afterwards. I went into Sport Check to look for some soccer shorts for him, and was told that they don't stock kids stuff because it is the downtown location. Understandable, because the clientele aren't generally kids, but just an example of how we see downtown and kids as not intermingling. I bet that a sports store in central (insert European city here) would have a kids section.
/tangent