What's with kid's today? (daycare, houses, movies)

[RANGER.101ST]

Hello! I have a few ? on kid's today.
Im in my 40's grew up in houlton,me .
We didnt have a lot growing up but we were happy.
My dad was a carpenter in the summer and worked for andy anderson and
harry bass in spring,fall,and winter.
We pickt potatoes in the fall $0.20 a barel .
Now kids have it made. We didnt have vidio games,4wheelers,comps,cable tv,ipods,dvd's,none of that stuff.
but we allways found something to do and had fun doing it.
my kids are allways comeing to me saying they are bord ,thers nothing to do
What hapend to imagination? if it doesnt plug in or run on batterys their
not interested.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

One summer in high school I could not find a steady job so I mowed lawns, did yard work, split wood, helped farmers and sold worms. In between to pass the time I built a ski jump - in August - out of stone. We sure had a ball six months later. I got the angle just right and we could jump about 30 feet, maybe more after we packed our trail.

I can't imagine a kid doing this today.

[Bydand]

What happened to imagination is that the kids are not given the chance to develop it anymore. For the most part, the role of the imagination is taken by the TV, DVD player, game systems, and everything else we as parents give them. I noticed the same thing with my kids (4 boys all 10 and under) and during the nice days, all electronic items are off and they are outside doing what I used to at their ages. Playing with trucks, sticks, rocks, riding their bikes, whatever they want; as long as it doesn't take batteries or plug in. They all have active imaginations and I hardly ever hear the old "it's soooo boring I'm going to die" phrase anymore from them. My wife and I make it a priority that for birthdays and Christmas their "Main" gifts are something that they can play with and have fun with, but are not electronic.

Don't get me wrong, my boys have the PS2's, the Leapsters, the Nintendo DS's, access to the computers, a laptop to work with, and more gadgets than I could have dreamed of as a kid. It is just their used is monitored and limited. Equal or more time is spent with drawing pads, bikes, digging in the dirt, books, bikes, and other items that they have to use their imagination to come up with different games and make their own fun.

[RANGER.101ST]

Your right NMLM we useto build tree houses and forts.
out of slab wood . and for xmas dad made most of our toys and mom made sox mitens
and cloths.you couldnt get mine to wear home made nothing.

[genmomto5]

Imaginative kids are still around. You should have heard the rollicking game of sardines running through my house the other day. Or the arguments because one kid wants to play that they are fishes, another wants to be pirates, and another thinks they should play that somebody is the baby and someone is the mommy. I'm trying to stress compromise with 3 hard heads. Not easy. But they are having fun, mostly.

[Zymer]

Ranger, you've answered your own question.

" my kids are allways comeing to me saying they are bord ,thers nothing to do
What hapend to imagination? if it doesnt plug in or run on batterys their
not interested."

Too much electronic stimulation, too early.

Children need to be taught, and encouraged, to read when they are young, both fact and fiction. Reading develops imagination and helps to instill a desire to learn.

They also need to be exposed to the wonders of nature- how a plant grows, how a tadpole turns into a frog. Then they need to be exposed to the more technical things- how gears work, how a motor runs, how electronics work.

TV and video games have become electronic babysitters. "Stuff" is pushed at the kids, they don't need to to do think and use their imagination unless their exposure is limited, and mostly educational material.

When children are young, entertainment TV should be *strictly* limited, a special occasion. They should have a library of reference material- encyclopedia, dictionary, even medical texts. Additionally, the library should have an assortment of fiction including classic literature such as Shakespere, Melville, as well as a variety of westerns, sci-fi, detective stories, etc.

Children are inquisitive by nature. When they are young, when they ask questions they should either be shown (if you can) or told to "look it up". The answers to their questions should not be simply "fed" to them, they need to learn how to learn. A child whose imagination is stimulated, and who learns how to find the answers for him/herself will become more independent, more creative, more self-sufficient.

(Of course, this does not eliminate the need for observation, guidance and involvement from the parents and/or other adults. A 10 year old who figures out how to make powerful explosives from relatively easily obtainable materials can get himself into a bit of trouble...not that *I* would know anything about that .)

[starwalker]

Yeah, I think Zymer hit it on the head... It all starts when they are babies and toddlers.. and with parents who many mean well but don't think ahead. Heck, most folks don't think ahead... but that's another rant! LOL If you don't start out plunking them in front of the TV, if you pick daycare (as most folks these days need it sometime) where they DO stuff with the kids, and if you do stuff -- get down on the floor and build with blocks, legos, etc.... if you encourage questions and help them find the answers and talk about stuff -- real stuff not just "kid stuff" instead of saying "not now kid, I'm busy..." and have a family culture that de-emphasizes the electronic toys and mindless drivel on the tube it will help. That's how I raised mine... we seldom had the tv on, when we had one, had a rule against the tv-ad "toy du jour" and enforced it on anyone who wanted to gift the kids.

Be curious yourself! Engage them... ask THEM "why?" and then listen!

[BacktoNE]

We were plenty spoiled with toys, books, etc. but in the summer during school vacation, the TV was unplugged and we were outside from the time we finished b'fast until it was time for supper. And then again after that. I don't think it would have occured to us to stay in and watch TV. My parents would only plug it back in to watch the evening news or is there was something special going on, such as the summer olympics but even then we were limited to 1 hour before bed.

You are all correct when you say it starts when kids are babies and not parking them in front of the TV with videos as the babysitter. Creative play stimulates the imagination; electronics, while they have their place, tend to be more mind numbing than stimulating.

[msina]

excellant thread. None of you need any input from me, but I will say well done! You're good parents and "smaht cookies".

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Smaaht, very daahned smaaaht.

For some reason a friend and my foxhole project (age 8-11?) comes to mind. Seeing lots of war movies, we wanted to dig a foxhole. Eventually it got to 3' deep, maybe 3' across. We had lots of fun with it, and of course it was handy for army games.
We would take off on our bikes and be gone for hours. Home for lunch, gone again.
We'd play a game of modified tag we called guerilla ( I thought it was gorilla...maybe it was...). Everyone would split up, take off into the woods, and it would take an hour or more to resolve. Great fun.
Snowball fights, snow forts. Climbing trees. Exploring the woods.
The fattest kid then would pass for average to slightly plump today.