Living with Children in Barcelona

Tuesday, 21 June 2011 23:19

Living with Children in Barcelona ^Featured

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Many people who move to Spain eulogise about the family-orientated nature of life here. Children are included in daily activities in a way that would be unthinkable in some other countries. Siesta-recharged kids stay up late and eat in restaurants with their families at weekends, tucking into the same food their parents are eating while learning to socialise and interact. It’s a million miles away from the UK where tartrazined toddlers bounce off the walls of ‘family rooms’, hopped up on the refined sugars and mechanically-recovered animal proteins of appalling ‘kids menus’, to the disapproving tuts and glares of other diners.

Laughing children are met here with smiles instead of scowls on public transport and, although parents have to run a gauntlet of unsolicited childcare advice from senior citizens every time they leave the house, the experience of having children in Barcelona is generally a pleasant one.

The biggest downside is undoubtedly the lack of open space compared with some other big European cities . A combination of climate and overbuilding has left Barcelona sadly lacking in grassy areas for children to play. There are lots of small playgrounds dotted around but real parks are limited and, as any visit to Ciutadella on a sunny Sunday will show you, over-full. There’s also lots of fun to be had for kids at the beach but that’s not feasible for most of us on a daily basis.

To help families find things to do, the best places to shop and the best child-friendly restaurants, a couple of websites have been created, based upon the experiences of other parents here.

The best of them all is Kids In Barcelona which has grown to become a comprehensive resource for any parent. It includes guides in English not only to what’s on — with a regularly-updated agenda of kids ‘activities and events — but also a directory of shops and services, how-to sections, a look at the outdoor and indoor play options available, a forum and entire sections on what you need to know to live or visit here with kids. It’s not the prettiest website in the world but the sheer usefulness of the content outweighs any amount of on-screen clutter.

A relative newcomer is Mammaproof.org. This is in Spanish but worth checking out even if you have to use Google Translate to do so. The concept behind it is to collate first-hand reviews and reports on places where you can go with children — especially babies — that offer changing facilities, high chairs and friendly service. The focus is on ‘normal’ restaurants that parents might conceivably enjoy rather than just the usual hellish circuit of cavernous dispensers of greasy croquetas. Mammaproof also includes reviews of toy shops and clothes shops for children.

On the subject of children, mention must be made of pkeños, an online marketplace for high-quality second-hand baby clothes. Founded by Lucy Davis (interviewed by BcnIn here), it’s a huge help for expat parents who lack a local network of friends and family with whom to exchange such things. It also provides a way to empty the cupboards of unwanted clothes — recovering a bit of money in the process — when your child grows up.

If you have more suggestions of resources for families, leave a comment and we’ll look at them in a future BcnIn blog.

Read 1525 times Last modified on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 18:51