It is a common practice in most parts of the world to bring your children to church sermons with you and most parents tend to do so. Parents like to have their children gain valuable religious knowledge from an early age, and I realize how a few individual groups oppose this practice, but let's face the fact, it isn't going anywhere any soon.
But bringing your children to church on a Sunday afternoon can be a bit risky at times. Managing children, for instance, can be a very demanding task while trying to maintain the serenity and quietness of the church and at the same time focus on the sermon. Children can be noisy, full of interruption and just won't let you sit through a lecture without complaining of how bored they are and how they wished they'd stayed home.
So is there a solution to this? I think there is.
Realistically, children don't have much to do in churches but slump away and/or doze off listening to an endless lecture that they don't understand much of anyway. So why not introduce play in such areas where children are bored and have nothing better going for them? What we're aiming towards is the introduction of playgrounds outside or in the vicinity of churches. This trend isn't new and many churches across the country have now installed or are installing church playground equipment to help keep children occupied in a fun and entertaining way.
A lot of people will at this point argue that churches and other religious places and environments have a strict and very formal nature and atmosphere that doesn't allow playing or entertainment during the sermons or lectures, but does it really have to be the same? I think not, because let's be honest, children don't really develop an interest or understand most of the religious practices till they are in their early teens - and for some, even later. During these years, children require entertainment of any form in all forms and (sometimes) at all times. This is no different when they are brought along to the church with their parents.
Installing play-structures in church vicinities is the obvious candidate to the problem. And it just won't serve children really well, but parents too. Playgrounds of all kinds help parents and children bond through play and this is a fact that has been documented very well in the past couple of years. Parents and children both learn of the other and both relationships grow further with interaction and learning.
All of these reasons that we've mentioned today just highlight some of the many reasons why setting up play-structures and playground equipment outside churches can have a massive positive effect on both the children and adults there.