V - great thread.
There have been several studies about outdoor play in the city. Inner city kids in impoverished neighborhoods have significantly reduced outdoor play time. Mothers report they are afraid that their child will get hurt. By which they mean shot, beaten, robbed, raped, killed etc. The studies correlated high crime areas with low outdoor activity. That's really sad. But I can hardly blame those parents.

As for the rest? I don't understand it. I live in a nice upscale suburb and the only times kids play with other kids is when it is pre-arranged as a "play date". God forbid your kid shows up with a basketball or something at someone's house unannounced. I would love it if kids did it but there is some unwritten law that it is not allowed. But at least I work hard to make sure my kids have lots of "play dates".

I work in a blue collar city. Obesity is rampant. I'm talking 280 lb 18 year old girls. Yet parent after parent admits to me that there is a TV in the kid's room, plus the gameboy and computer games. And that's all he does after school. I could go on and on.

My personal goal is to increase breast feeding. Besides obesity (which breastfeeding reduces significantly) the city where I work has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. With blacks having a rate 3 times as high as whites. There was a national study published this month measuring childhood health in the USA. The "deep south" (NC, SC, AL, Miss, Louisiana, Ark, Tenn) scored more than one standard deviation below the rest of the country. Meanwhile, the response mothers give me when I ask why they aren't breastfeeding? "It's yucky." Breastfeeding alone reduces infant mortality in the USA (not some 3rd world country) by 22% !!! Aaaargh.

OK I degressed. If there is anyone out there who wants to talk breastfeeding, look me up!