I guess I just worried she wasn't paying due attention to the little ones. Maybe I just need to chill out! Lol!
Yeah, I think the word "sunbathing" may have triggered the association of "being lazy", "half asleep", "distracted",... in you? Could that be true?
But keep in mind there is also "being lazy and chillin' together with the children" which can be very nice. Especially if the children get to play in the garden a bit.
And truely, kids don't need a huge fancy garden or a park or a playground to build a nice outside experience. When I was little, we only had a really small front lawn with a few flowers but in my mind it was a whole jungle to explore.
And when I took walks with my granddad in the "forest" that was (in hindsight) only a few dozen trees and shrubs, he also often just sat down on a bench and enjoyed a bit of rest while I was running back and forth between exploring on my own and getting back to tell him what I had seen. You can help children develop just by "being around" when they need a sounding board for what they're learning in relative freedom.