If you have children, my guess is you have at some point questioned how much time they spend in front of a screen. I'm a parent myself and I find that even trying to limit my kids use of screens makes all kinds of other challenges. I discovered my guest today through a New York Times article, The Anti-Helicopter Parent’s Plea: Let Kids Play!, and I just loved what he created. There is a quote by Buckminster Fuller that comes to mind... “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” And Mike Lanza is doing this with Play by creating a better option for winning our children's attention. Mike Lanza is author of Playborhood: Turn Your Neighborhood Into a Place for Play. He also blogs at Playborhood.com . He's worked hard to create a very rich neighborhood play life for his three boys - ages 13, 10, and 8 - in Menlo Park, California. He's also discovered and written about dozens of neighborhoods throughout North America that are doing innovative things to make a vibrant life for kids. Prior to his writing career, Mike was a five-time software and Internet entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. He holds an MA in Education, an MBA, and an MA and BA in Economics, all from Stanford University. Today we talk about his book and so much more. We dive into topics like what started Mike in direction of writing Playborhood, why our kids have stopped playing outside, the many sources of competition for our kids attention, bringing the neighborhood back to life, making your neighborhood into a village, creating the "3rd place" in your neighborhood, the foundations of a social life, the importance of hanging a physical hangout for kids... not just digital, the key points for making your neighborhood hangout, the importance of free play and letting kids make up their own rules, what Mike has noticed is different in the development of his own children, and so much more...
