Let the children play!

I don't know when it happened and I'm not sure why, but sometime between my leaving school and my children starting someone stole their child hood, someone decided that 7years at high school, 3years at university and a lifetime at work wasn't enough, they needed to start much earlier than 11, all those wasted years playing games, riding bikes and climbing trees.
We blame society, we say it's just not safe but I'm beginning to see that actually it's down to me, I'm the one who decides what they do, how they spend their time, it's me making my 9 year old sit in her room doing frankly a pointless piece of homework

Instead of playing footy in the garden with daddy!

And suddenly I realise I am buying into the lie, in 10 years time she will be grown, I won't get these moments back and will this piece of homework have made any difference, no!
So I say let the children play!

So here's the challenge - how do we as parents turn the tide and stand up for our childrens right to be children?