33% of parents confess their kids spend under two hours outside a week

While half of parents believe it is important for their children to get out of the house and play, almost a third have admitted their kids spend less than two hours a week playing outside.

Five per cent say their offspring spend no time at all playing outside the home.

The figures come from a survey from the Woodland Trust (and Scandinavian furniture retailer IKEA), which questioned 2,000 parents.

The activity families most enjoy for spending time together is visiting the beach (28 per cent), closely followed by a trip to local woodland or parks (24 per cent).

18 per cent think local theme parks are the best place for a family to spend time together, while ten per cent prefer to stay indoors watching TV or playing computer games.

IKEA and the Woodland Trust have been working together since 2007 for the ‘IKEA Family Foot of Forest’ campaign, aiming to create more woodland for the nation to enjoy with the retailer donating cash for every in-store swipe of IKEA’s Family card.

Over £1.35 million has been raised for the Woodland Trust in this way, helping created over 309 acres of woodland in the UK – close to the size of the Olympic Village, according to the press statement.