tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post5608563135754895354..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Overprotected ChildrenJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-35376077606139906752015-01-18T10:45:17.239-05:002015-01-18T10:45:17.239-05:00But perhaps most important of all is this - what d...But perhaps most important of all is this - what do the KIDS think?<br /><br />While the older generations lament "The Death of Fun", the younger generations are having a blast doing their own thing. They might not be playing outside as much, for a large variety of reasons, but that doesn't mean they aren't having fun. (Maybe not exercising enough, but that's a different matter entirely.)<br /><br />A quick comparison, if I may. Did the parents of the Baby Boomers tut-tut about how kids of that era were missing out on the fabulous entertainments of a few generations prior?<br /><br /><i>"Woe for the lost pleasures of the turn of the century! All the kids are playing with those newfangled Hula-Hoops, and Slinkies, and Etch-A-Sketches, and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots! Hardly any child today plays with toy drums, or goes hoop rolling, or even just plays marbles or jacks or conkers! They're too busy watching those dreadful television shows and movies, or listening to their awful crystal radio sets, or worst of all running off into the woods getting into who knows what kind of mischief! To be honest, they shouldn't even be allowed out of the house! They should be put to work, chores around the house or a paid job at a mill to help the family finances! Idle hands are the Devil's workshop, after all!"</i>G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-78421979210148531232015-01-18T10:30:01.267-05:002015-01-18T10:30:01.267-05:00But there's still more to things.
There are ...But there's still more to things. <br /><br />There are practical factors like changes in economics, infrastructure, and law. There are less tangible factors like changes in social mores, education, and lifestyles.<br /><br />First, economics. Modern entertainment has a greater variety, availability, and afforability than previous. Kids simply have more options available to them, with greater capacity to maintain their interest, and at cheaper prices. The Baby Boomers didn't have too many things to do for fun - they could maybe see a movie, or watch a television show, but those were scheduled events that cost money and had limited variety. In contrast, playing outside was spontaneous, free, and was limited only by one's imagination.<br />But today, kids have much easier access to activities that allow spontaneity and variety at low cost. Perfect example? <b><i>Minecraft.</i></b><br /><br />Infrastructure is another concern. Parks and open spaces don't exist in the same number and quality that they used to. Simply put, there are fewer places to play outdoors, and they're harder to get to, so naturally fewer kids do so. Civic design is simply different than it was during the Baby Boomer years.<br /><br />Legal concerns are also a big factor. Not just the way we deal with liability today, but also worries over things like criminality. Remember back when gangs were this huge problem? Remember the "crime wave"? Remember the years before the "War on Drugs", when the attitude toward hard substances like cocaine was casual acceptance? Remember the societal backlash against all those things, people demanding the police and the government do something about it? Well guess what - they did. And the natural consequence is less kids on street corners, and more kids indoors.<br /><br />On to social mores - it is no longer common for a family to have one working parent and one stay-at-home parent. Heck, a lot of families are outright broken, with divorce rates up and single parents being far greater in number. Being a latch-key kid is relatively common compared to the Baby Boomer years, and as mentioned neighborhoods are less cohesive and more insular than before.<br /><br />Education and lifestyle is a factor, with kids having less free time, more homework, less recess, more time spent commuting. This also ties back into the social mores - young parents are often busy working on their own educations, especially since the expectation of a college degree is so much stronger than it used to be, particularly for women. With parents less able to watch them or drive them around, indoor entertainments are preferred. <br /><br />There's also the question of cost - for many poor Americans, buying a kid a video game system is worthwhile because it means Ma and Pa don't have to worry about where the kid will be or what they'll be doing while they're busy working their second jobs and the like.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-50459731715382194382015-01-18T10:00:44.004-05:002015-01-18T10:00:44.004-05:00I hear this sort of thing a lot from older comment...I hear this sort of thing a lot from older commentors, and I always shake my head somewhat, because typically while they pine for the nostalgic activities of their own youths, they simultaneously ignore, discount, or outright oppose more modern "fun" that kids willfully engage in.<br /><br />Modern kids do spend a lot less time outside than they did a couple generations ago, but there's far more involved in that change than just fear.<br /><br />Technology certainly plays a major role - toys and entertainment objects have changed drastically. The rise of home computers and video games alone is a major contributor, but there are other technological factors at work. Television - once relegated to a dozen or so channels with limited broadcasts on large, expensive boxes - has since became cheap, space efficient, and flooded with available programming, twenty four hours a day. And both of these major developments were just since the 1980s, really.<br /><br />Climate control is also a factor. For most Baby Boomers, central air conditioning was something only the wealthy had when they were kids, and even window units and the like were expensive. Running around outside in the heat and humidity makes sense when the alternative is sitting in a stuffy house with no AC or other meaningful circulation - especially if you don't have any indoor-only, relatively <i><b>quiet</b></i> entertainment like TVs, video games, computers, et cetera (because Ma and Pa aren't gonna put up with your noise in the house) . You can either sit quietly in the house and broil, or run around and actually have fun outside with the chance of a breeze and maybe playing in a creek, sprinkler, or vandalized fire hydrant.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-19981821315561349232015-01-18T04:01:09.705-05:002015-01-18T04:01:09.705-05:00No edit button?No edit button?Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-59821928015707488062015-01-18T03:56:51.413-05:002015-01-18T03:56:51.413-05:00Don't forget all the laws designed to ferret o...Don't forget all the laws designed to ferret out "neglectful" parents. You live in Maryland as do I, so I am sure you are aware of what recently happened to the Free Range parents here in our state.<br /><br />These laws exist, at least in part, as a consequence of the overreaction of which you speak, but now that they exist they are as much a part of the problem as the other ones you mention.<br /><br />These parents are playing with fire. If anything happens to these children, something as simple as an injury at the playground, they will be up to their eyeballs in trouble with the state. Who wants to lose their kids? And then there is the public labeling.Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.com