Where Did They Go?

[Castuserraticus]

bhurt,

 

I've watched the organized programs effect my kids & grand-kids. Certainly lots of organized stuff.

But I get back to my original observation - other than organized play, I hardly seen any kids @ either the playgrounds to the east/north/south of us unless they are accompanied by parents.

 

About this time of year when I was a kid a 22, a can of beans, a knife and some matches and I was gone for the whole day. I'd suspect that if you treated a kid like that today - somebody or other would be howling child abuse.

 

 

regards,

 

 

Don

 

The parents are largely afraid to let the kids out of their sight. I grew up in the country and my wife grew up in the city. Her fears generally ruled over what I would have let them done.

 

I was able to pass on fire and knife/axe skills to them when we were camping.

 

One strange thing is that, when I was a kid, my parents would not allow me and my brother to stay inside if the outside weather was reasonable. Now my Dad spends 90% of his waking hours sitting and channel surfing. It seems the mindless TV sucks in more than just the younger generation.

[ÜberFly]

:clapping:

 

I teach in a junior high in rural Alberta and I would say your observations aren't too far off. The problem as I see it is two issues.

 

1. Kids are too busy. Hockey 3-5 nights a week, soccer, dance, basketball, piano, etc, etc. I think a lot of parents keep their kids far too busy. However, I think it is just in response to keeping them from problem #2.

 

2. Video games/tv. A recent study stated that kids spend 6 hours a day on either tv or video games. If they're not playing some kind of sport, they're in front of some type of screen. I definitely know they're not doing homework! Motivation is at an all time low. They want to be entertained, and when they're not, they lose interest in about 30 seconds. Creativity and critical thinking skills also seem to be spirally down. What really scares me is that when I ask kids how many text-messages they send a day, it's often between 400-600/day. Yup, you read that right! Text-messaging is a de-evolution of communication. It's a step backward. When you don't talk face-to-face you lose something in the communication. Kids are more connected than at any time in history yet are missing the connections. This, above all else (even seeing them out at the playground) is what worries me the most.

 

And yes, kids are still good. They want to be good people and want to fit in and I don't think that the world is going to end because they can't play with a stick for hours and be satisfied. It just worries me what type of adults these kids are going to turn into and what kind of society those adults are going to create.

 

[Hawgstoppah]

well I am glad that my 4 kids (10,8,6 and 5yrs old) all LOVE to play outside, even in the snow! Count me one of the lucky dad's then!

[ladystrange]

well I am glad that my 4 kids (10,8,6 and 5yrs old) all LOVE to play outside, even in the snow! Count me one of the lucky dad's then!

 

 

you cant even get a cup of coffee down there Brian

 

technically i was a city/sub-urb kid but i still had 50 acres of forest behind my house 1 stream 1 river and cable. i still chose to be outside rather than in, even when it rained for days on end. i also had grandparents and cousins who lived on farms with animals and chores that needed to be done before anything else. i learned where my meat comes from and that there are consequences when the work isnt done before the play time starts

 

i did have 1 experience with a creepy guy hanging out near the school which was a few blocks from my house, he started to approach me and i ran the other way, in to the river and through my neighbours yard to get home and then locked the doors

 

im more concerned about kids and their lack of common sense these days. too many parents just dont have time to spend quality time with their kids from a young age and once they turn into teens they are hellians with no sense of respect for anything. iguess that is what you learn when you grow up with daycare. my personal opinion about daycare, im sure there are lots out there that are decent but staff getting paid $10 an hour to watch 15 + kids just cannot give the same attention and learning oppertunities that a caring parent/grandparent etc can.

 

it seems to be a problem with society is that everyone is too busy for anyone else and those moments we get to take a moment to wind down are few and far between so tv becomes an easy answer

[LynnF]

Video games, texting, computer games, Facebook...I blame the downfall of our unsocialized and depressed youth on electronic "progression". I like to think it's regression. We're raising a generation of kids who don't know how to interact on a face-to-face level like their parents did/do. They don't know how to use their thumbs for anything but A, B, and Jump on a game controller. They don't know what's entertaining outside of zoning out in front of a screen. And I speak from experience and authority. Case in point: we completely removed video games and computer from my almost-16-year-old's life last summer because from sun up to sun down he'd be in the basement during his summer vacation playing video games. I'd had enough (plus the shitty report cards due to excessive gaming and no homework didn't help either). So...what did he do....got on his bike or skateboard and went and hung out at Fish Creek Park and made some friends. Got to know some girls. Probably did some stuff that I don't wanna know about but he was outside and learning what it's like to be a normal, functioning, social teenager. BUT, take away the video games and all of a sudden his friends who do nothing but, were no longer calling or coming over. It's what they have in common. It's what they do. And now all of a sudden, there's less kids around because they're all inside gaming and they're not interested in coming over if you're not allowed to do that. Queue moderation - video games and computer on weekends only and set your own time limit or mom's gonna do it for you. That went over like a lead bomb, so back they went. Lesson learned and only one month of being banned I think the teenager has figured it out. As with everything else, all things in moderation. But many parents just don't give a *hit and will let their kids play on those things when they should be in bed, when they should be doing homework and when they should be out playing. Winter is long in this province and I have no problem with allowing more time in the pursuit of electronic entertainment. But all that can get lost when it gets nice out. We have a kid across the street whose parents have no TV in the house. GASP - imagine that, NO TV. I'm assuming probably no computer either. That kid is outside in his driveway with his net and goalie equipment playing hockey EVERY night before and after dinner when it's not below minus 10. Even in the dark. And lo and behold he's got some defensemen to come play too. And a couple of forwards.

 

Mike likes to tell the story of how he grew up in East Van and in the summer they'd be gone from right after breakfast until dinner time (no lunch) riding bikes all the way to Stanley Park (I don't know VCR but I'm assuming that's a hike). No way with all the crazies could you do that now...times have changed. Long lost is the innocence and safety of letting our children have free reign. And that's the other big half of where the kids are.

 

I encourage you parents who have video game/computer issues to restrict or outright ban for a period. Sure your kids are gonna think you're a bitch (or....***hole for you men)...but I don't mind being though of that way if it means I have a better than good chance of raising a better kid/adult because I'm a hardass about it. Which I do.

[Crowsnest]

I would agree with most of what you wrote Lynn,

 

I have two young girls (6 & 4) and we don't have a video game system in the house, nor am I planning on getting one. I spent far too much time and money in my youth on these machines and don't want to see my kids do the exact same. I see no need to get them computer/internet/ipod, etc... savvy at this age. While I'm at home the t.v time is very limited and is treated as a reward for good behaviour (tidying up toys/rooms, etc) (wife is quite busy during the day and may allow them more tube time). In the house the girls like to play barbies or whatever together along with the neighbour girls and we encourage that. When summer comes they will play outside on the jungle jim/park/cul-de-sac with the other kids (sidewalk chalk, etc...)

[Smitty]

Just an addendum to what I said earlier:

 

Spent the previous week (Thu-Fri) at Teachers' Convention here in Edmonchuk. Usually I rotate session to session, but Friday I decided to stick with one guy for the whole day; a special ed teacher and brain researcher. His lecture was very eye opening in terms of the effects of video games and television, instant gratification, brains constantly being bombarded with dopamine.

 

To skip the gory details, it amounts to the electronification of our children amounts to brain "rot". Basically validating most peoples' concerns here.

 

I think I should get back to basics and revive my flyfishing club and spend a little more effort and time getting kids to learn flyfishing, and just breathing oxygen from fresh air outdoors.

 

Smitty

[daxlarsen]

kids get their habbits from their parents, if you take your kids camping and fishing, they're going to learn to have appreciation for the outdoors. Growing up in a family of 5 kids, my parents took us out camping at least every other weekend in the summer, and now that we're all grown up, we all love camping and outdoorsy stuff. Though we also had video games to keep us busy alot of the time, I think if you find a family where the kids do nothing but play vids and goof around on computers is because the parents simply havn't taken the time (or weren't shown themselves) to show their kids the great outdoors and that no video game can equal the feeling of a fish on the line.

[DonAndersen]

Folks,

 

Saw this gal on TV [gasp]. She makes sense.

 

http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/

 

catch ya'

 

 

Don

[reevesr1]

I just finished a book called Outliers. One of the parts talked about the education systems in China vs. North America and how they came about. In the mid 1800's, educators thought that having kids spend too much time in class could lead to mental problems later on, and they needed time to play (and work the farms, though that wasn't really talked about). Not so in China. Work was seen as preferable over play. Hence Chinese (and this could be extended to any rice growing culture for reasons to detailed to go into here) schools went longer per day, more days per week, more weeks per year. The point is that every generation thinks that anything that the kids do differently than the previous generation is bad for them (in the 1870s the previous generations didn't spend a whole lot of time in school). Usually they are wrong. We have no idea what this generation will turn out to be. They'll probably turn out pretty much like we did, and the generation before, and the generation before, and the generation before............

[rehsifylf]

The point is that every generation thinks that anything that the kids do differently than the previous generation is bad for them (in the 1870s the previous generations didn't spend a whole lot of time in school). Usually they are wrong. We have no idea what this generation will turn out to be. They'll probably turn out pretty much like we did, and the generation before, and the generation before, and the generation before............

 

Exactly.

 

I'd add that when our grandparents were our age they ate healthier, were less obese, ...