A trip to your favorite playground can be a little startling in the summer. School is out, and all those big kids have to go somewhere. Here are my best strategies for having fun on days your regular hang out is a seething kidapalooza. See if I have yours!
1.Go Early Have your fun in the morning, and you’ll beat a significant portion of the crowd, including day care field trips and bored teenagers. Plus, it will be cooler, and your kids will probably be in a better mood.
2. Go Elsewhere At the risk of stating the totally obvious, most communities have one really popular park, and a bunch of smaller parks that hardly anyone goes to. Head to your park department web site, or the one for a neighboring community and make a little list. Neighborhood parks are often good bets. If you’re a local, Metro Parks Tacoma tends to call these, “Pocket Parks,” There are also a few they call, “Tot Lots.”
3. Go to school My son’s school has a great little playground, and in the summer there is almost never anyone there. There is something totally delicious about getting to hop on the equipment without having to wait your turn.
4. Go wild While playgrounds tend to get packed, less developed parks are much less likely to see a whole group, and even if they’re crowded there is room to spread out. For local readers, we’ve been to Owens Beach and Dash Point on days the parking lots were nearly full and easily found room to spread out by walking a bit.
5. Just embrace it! A park full of kids means you might get to skip a day of tag duty. Just teach yours to answer loudly, “Here I am,” when you call and scope out the exits to the play structures.
What’s your favorite less crowded playground? I’d love to hear about if if you’re willing to spill!
ashley says
June 22, 2011 at 9:25 amMy friend Lauren told me about a the park in stillicoom! The playground is awesome and really encourages imagination with its areas! The grounds its self are awesome with big fields, a dog park and walking trails! It does get packed on the sunny days though and having a 3 yr old and 18 m old by myself it was a little hard to keep track of both of them.
Thank you so much for this post I love the advice and tips!
admin says
June 22, 2011 at 9:53 amThat’s a super fun park, Ashley. You’re right that it’s a little scary on busy days because of the way the castle part has closed sides. I like it there a lot more now that my boys are a little bigger. If you have your little ones on your own, I’d recommend the Fircrest tot lot. It’s not super exciting, but it’s all fenced in!
Nicole says
July 9, 2014 at 12:38 pmWe enjoy going when there are other kids but mainly the ones from our playdates or friends 🙂 We always go early as I’m pregnant due soon with our 4th and have 3 kids to watch. I prefer it so my younger ones nap perfect for me for 3 hours a day. Then we play outside or pool time in the afternoon at home. We will run our errands after breakfast, park then lunch. We enjoy Rainier Vista a mile from us. Of course we go early so never an issue. Avonlea in our neighborhood is great too but I find a lot of older kids there, they are being rude and saying certain things they shouldn’t be around tots and my school ager. LBA is wonderful as well again all these parks are right by us so we love it. LBA is nice but zip line I have to get onto my youngest 2 since I have to lift them up and hurts my growing belly. We park hop almost every morning. We did priest point in AM LOVED it, great time to go our top 2 parks we love. We did try an early afternoon after 3…we pulled in and I pulled right back out. It was nuts, the people looks like they were all playing on the toys(adults), a lot of males and a lot of big guys and I felt it was unsafe for my kids as well as way to crowded. Anyway…great post! I always worry about crowds with my kids. My hubby is a soldier and can’t do crowds well he will just calmly pack up and leave but I get it too.
admin says
July 9, 2014 at 1:17 pmGreat ideas, Nicole! Thanks so much for taking the time to share them!
Angela says
July 9, 2014 at 3:29 pmWe love all those parks too! There’s also one called Harry Fines (Fiens?) off 22nd, off Boulevard. It’s completely shaded, and for all the times we’ve been there, there’s only once been someones else. Perfect for small kiddos, too. The swings are really low to the ground, and the equipment is fairly easy to climb on.
Angela says
July 9, 2014 at 3:32 pmBush Park in Lacey is one of our fav’s. We also like Avonlea, LBA (altho this is a popular one), and Rainier Vista. I feel very fortunate to live in an area that puts so much into their parks. I grew up in Gig Harbor, and back then there was ONE we could go to! My kids are blessed. Kudos to Lacey Parks and Rec!