Resumo. ABSTRACT It is clear that physical education is considered a compulsory subject and as such should be la-belled as an important subject, but this perspective is not always shared by the educational community. The aim of this study was to explore the perception of families with children enrolled in compulsory education about the subject of physical education. To this end, an ad hoc questionnaire was administered, consisting of 15 questions, two of which were socio-demographic in nature and the rest of which were Likert-type responses. The study is a non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional study. The study sample consisted of a total of 120 respondents (M=40.28 years; SD= 6.95). Participants were selected through non-probability purposive sampling. The results showed a lack of knowledge regarding the subject of physical education which implies that there are diverse opinions about the functioning and the proposed aim of this subject. However, physical education should be seen as an essential subject for the integral development of the student.