A partir de una investigación cualitativa centrada en entrevistas en profundidad el artículo indaga el modo en que, desde la mirada adulta, niños y niñas de hogares populares del Gran La Plata, Buenos Aires (Argentina), se vincularon con la actividad física a través del juego y las prácticas deportivas en el contexto de aislamiento impuesto por la pandemia del COVID-19. La investigación revela que las actividades analizadas signaron la experiencia de niños y niñas durante la pandemia. En un momento tan extraordinario como crítico, padres y/o madres con sus desiguales condiciones de posibilidad, buscaron preservar y sostener este mundo expresivo infantil. Lejos de concebirse como un conjunto marginal de actividades, dejar jugar se constituyó en una estrategia central para cuidar de sus hijos e hijas, sobrellevar la vida doméstica durante la pandemia y contrarrestar algunos de sus efectos.

Based on qualitative research centred on in-depth interviews, the article analyses the way in which, from an adult perspective, children from low-income households in Gran La Plata, Buenos Aires (Argentina), were linked to physical activity through play and sporting practices in the context of isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research reveals that the activities analysed –mediated by patterns of upbringing, the characteristics of family conformation, the institutions, spatialities and devices that imbued them with certain enclassifying features- marked the experience of childhood during the pandemic. In a moment as extraordinary as it was critical, parents and/or mothers, with their unequal conditions of possibility, sought to preserve and sustain this expressive world of childhood. Far from being conceived as a marginal set of activities, letting play became a central strategy for caring for their children, coping with domestic life during the pandemic and counteracting some of its effects.