Answer

Unobtrusive Investigation

Location: St. Joseph Recreational Ground

Date: Saturday, September 10, 2016

Period: Mid-morning, 11am to 1pm

Objective: Having noticed children playing fun games at the St. Joseph Recreational Ground, I would like to investigate whether mothers would be interested in the actual activities by their children during play or they would simply consider the time as a moment of relaxation and bond with other mothers.

Hypotheses: First, recreational grounds are effective spaces for both mother and child relaxation. Second, mothers will focus more on their own relaxation through interacting with other mothers with limited attention to their children’s own activities while at the ground.

Unobtrusive Observation

            Even as the weather favored an opportunity to take a walk along the different social places of Tunapuna, I came across the St. Joseph Recreational Ground along Priest Hill Road, next to St. Joseph River. This clean and well decorated playing ground is well fenced and cleaned and by 11am, the number of children in the ground was relatively high, about 30 children were already utilizing the various play facilities while others simply played with sand in one end of the playground. Along the fence lines of the ground, I noticed various outdoor benches already occupied with at least two women and in some cases, a man and a woman who were either engaging in deep discussions while others kept starring at the children playing and making short breaks to rush to a kid to pick them up and return to sit and continue talking. I found this interesting to me and therefore got into the playground to clearly investigate whether mothers would be interested in the actual activities by their children during play or they would simply consider the time as a moment of relaxation and bond with other mothers.

            I selected mothers for the study as they formed the highest population of guardians within the park simply by observation. The male parents were few and the total count of number of men totaled to 4. After establishing this I began to observe the different mothers seated all-round the ground for at least five to seven minutes each. To avoid any suspicion, I sat at the furthest seat facing the river and would turn to make my observations momentarily. Due to security I had informed the entrance official of my intentions and having provided all my personal details, he had allowed me to move freely within the facility. Key observations therefore included: First, mother enjoyed conversing with other women who may also be mothers within the facility as they would talk for long, starring at each other or at their own actions that they would at times forget the exact location of their child. This was observable especially when after a five minutes long conversation, a mother would rise and begin to look for their child all over the ground and in some cases return the child to play closer to where she is seated.

            Second, the male parents would also interact with the female parents but the male parents were cautious with whatever their children did and therefore all of them would occasionally stand to go pick their children up in case they fell or simply play with them for a very short while before they returned to their seat and continue conversing. The children at the park were having a good time laying with their friends that when one child was asked to leave for their next activity with her guardian, she refused and ran back to play with her colleagues. Lastly, was also observable that some female guardians who I perceived mostly as the mothers to the children were constantly seeking to converse with their colleagues within the grounds as whenever one mother left, she was rapidly joined by another who was seated alone in another spot. None of the mothers was spending time in common communication tools like phones or other portable devices. In most cases they preferred sitting and staring at the children as opposed to even communicating or playing with the phones. I left the park at 1PM even as most of the children were leaving with their guardians for lunch. I collected my school and personal ID from the security personnel at the gate and signed out before formally appreciating the opportunity to complete my unobtrusive observation.

Conclusion

            It is therefore true that recreational grounds are effective places for the relaxation of both the mothers and children as they former interacts with other mothers through conversations while the latter enjoys fun activities with the colleagues.