"Complaints from cranky neighbours have also impacted outdoor play for Canadian kids.

After noise complaints, a popular roller slide was removed from a Vancouver playground in 2023 to the dismay of parents and children.

In 2018, a Calgary family reported that neighbours installed an alarm that went off when their kids made noise in the yard. In 2016, a Coquitlam, B.C., mother said she received a bylaw warning that her three children were playing too loudly outside.

Bylaw officers in Ottawa have also cracked down on roadside basketball and hockey nets, and in November a Markham, Ont. man reluctantly agreed to tear down his backyard rink following a years-long dispute with local officials and his neighbours."

Is this why we don't see children playing sports in the streets or in our parks?

Recently I was at a friends for dinner and his three children were playing with iPads. I asked Dad's permission then grabbed a ball and bat from the garage and went outside. His three kids were right behind me. Curious. Really!

I hit grounders to them in the street and within minutes kids arrived from neighboring homes. Within 15 we had two teams. We placed jackets for bases.

The few cars which needed the road, slowed, smiled as we stepped aside and continued playing.

We picked up the game post dinner.

Dad said the next morning that was all his children talked about at breakfast.

Game two the next day!

www.ctvnews.ca

The sound of children frolicking in playgrounds shouldn’t be a valid reason for noise complaints, a new report from Amsterdam’s sports advisory council says.