Working Mum - The great outdoors

I walked past a nursery the other day and loved seeing children playing outside despite it raining. They were obviously well set up to play because even the staff were wearing uniform waterproofs. During winter, there were some days when one of my daughters said she hadn't played outside at nursery because, according to the staff, it was too cold or too wet. I do wonder whose judgement that was. Both of my girls love jumping in puddles.

Isn't there a popular saying that there's no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothes? The children have wellies at nursery, extra layers and spare clothes, so what's stopping them from venturing out, even for a short time?

Of course, it isn't just reluctant practitioners who stop children going outside - I also know parents who are anxious about their child getting too cold or too tired. A friend's toddler had a runny nose and she queried whether it was because she had got wet during water play outside at nursery. Another mother used to grumble to me that she didn't like her three-year-old son walking alongside the pram twice a day on the school run. She thought that the ten-minute walk was too much for him.

NOSEY PARENT

We live in a city where land is at a premium, so I feel very fortunate that my girls attend a nursery where there is a large outdoor area. Most of the time it is imaginatively used. A new nursery (with higher fees than ours) doesn't have any outdoor space.

Being a nosey parent, I rang them to question this and was told that they have an 'indoor garden' with climbing frames and that they go out every day 'if the weather is good'. There is a small play park nearby that they visit.

The nursery is open from 7am-7pm, and it seems so sad that some children may be indoors for all that time and may even be returning to small flats. Those children will not experience the fun spontaneity of nipping outside and playing freely.

PROUDEST MOMENT

I think one of my husband's proudest moments was signing an accident form for one of our daughters - she had scraped her knee while climbing a tree in the nursery grounds. It's great that the staff are allowing her to take risks and explore.

They have given thought to the outdoor area. There is a mixture of grass, bare land and safety surface. It isn't just regarded as a place where the children can 'let off steam', as one nursery I visited referred to the boring Tarmac yard outside.

The children can investigate their environment - grow vegetables in the allotment area, simply pour water onto the mud, or dig, hunt for worms and watch the squirrels running across the fence. There are ride-on toys and climbing frames, but also easels for painting, a construction area and books for the children to look at while outside.

Both girls were playing outside when I went to collect them yesterday and I was told that one of them had been outside for most of the day. She was grinning while riding on a two-seater trike with a little boy. Her big sister was jumping around tyres. Neither of them wanted to go home.