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I actually complain about the kids playing in my neighborhood, lol. We live in what is basically a cluster of developments around a small shopping center surrounded by open space and farmland. There really isn't much for the kids to do. There is a wooded area behind my house with a path that leads to a playground and a bridge over a drainage area. Without fail almost everyday there are local kids out there playing. Everything from tag to baseball to just hanging out. The spot is also pretty popular with the local teens as a pre-curfew hangout spot. They don't do anything bad and I really only 'complain' about it because my yard is used a shortcut on occasion. Overall though I'd rather live in an area like that where kids are still out and about.
There is a bit of an age gap though. As young as 6 I remember going out into the neighborhood to play and I lived in a much more urban area growing up. Now, most of the kids seem to be around 8-10 before you really see them out playing in the neighborhood. I think a lot of it has to do with family schedules where most people aren't getting home until 5 or 6 at night and there are a lot more organized activities for kids to do. Even in my small rural town of around 6,000 people there are tons of things for the kids to do from art groups at the library to year round rec sports leagues to going to the skatepark to hanging at the associations pool complex. So, even when the kids are out and active they tend to be somewhere instead of everywhere.
From what I see some kids are certainly foregoing playing outside in favor of video games and TV, but that's not the majority. When my son has some friends over, they may play Wii or something for about 45 minutes, but after that they all want to go to the playground or out back to play.
We have a small park in our subdivision. There are almost always kids out playing (preschoolers and toddlers with moms almost every day and school age kids after school and on weekends). In the summer, the kids are often at the pool that is near the subdivision as well. There are kids in both our cul de sac and my dil's cul de sac quite frequently as well.
I think folks at City-Data should make a pact- when we see or hear of kids NOT playing outside, we should collectively kick their butts to go out and have some fun and burn some calories!
Anyone else (any other parents) notice kids "these days" don't seem to be outside playing with other kids as much as we seemed to have done when we were kids?
I vividly remember spending hours and hours outside with the neighborhood kids either sports in the street, climbing trees, riding bikes, etc. Nowadays I see one or two kids in the street chit chatting on their cell phones, maybe shooting hoops once in while.
Kids today only seem to be outside for maybe 30-60 minutes because, it seems, their moms have to be there too. The limiter is the moms' time as the moms don't like standing outside (with their arms folded - body language) talking to other moms about trivial things.
The rest of the time the kids are watching TV, playing video games, eating junk, etc. and my suspicion is because the moms would rather be inside on Facebook.
My wife and I will sometimes stand out in the front yard on beautiful 70F days in February (very common) and not see a single kid out playing. What the heck is up with that?
By the way, I have four girls 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2007.
Sound about right?
Not true at all.
I was young once ( dob 1974) While I was not allowed to run around rampant? I was allowed to have friends over and guess what? I had a playhouse out back that all the kids would come and play in!
Does the REAL definition of "play" mean allowed to ride one's bike 5 miles away from home? Climbing trees? or playing out front?
And yes...adult supervision is mandatory at some point, really?
My son is 14 going on 30 and he had boundaries, this practice fosters independence within means as well as safety issues.
He was allowed to play at the friends house down the street, ride his bike up and down the street and gasp! He was allowed to play out front for 2 hours as I sat outside talking with his aunt.
Being young and carefree does not mean run wild and have no supervision. Why? Because there are other dangers out there with newer methods...
My son is new age however he loves skateboarding, dancing and taping and filming his friends dancing and posting it on youtube.
He plays HS sports and practices have taken up most of his time as of late.
However not every child is the same.
My sisters children? It was and has been tooth and nail.
My oldest nephew? Was a pc game junkie it was not until HS that he put his size to good use and played football.
My middle nephew? He loves videogames it is not that outside play is foreign to him. My brother in law makes him go outside to practice for baseball ( He plays year round, basic and traveling team) but he does not like it. Some kids do not like it
Anyone else (any other parents) notice kids "these days" don't seem to be outside playing with other kids as much as we seemed to have done when we were kids?
I vividly remember spending hours and hours outside with the neighborhood kids either sports in the street, climbing trees, riding bikes, etc. Nowadays I see one or two kids in the street chit chatting on their cell phones, maybe shooting hoops once in while.
Kids today only seem to be outside for maybe 30-60 minutes because, it seems, their moms have to be there too. The limiter is the moms' time as the moms don't like standing outside (with their arms folded - body language) talking to other moms about trivial things.
The rest of the time the kids are watching TV, playing video games, eating junk, etc. and my suspicion is because the moms would rather be inside on Facebook.
My wife and I will sometimes stand out in the front yard on beautiful 70F days in February (very common) and not see a single kid out playing. What the heck is up with that?
By the way, I have four girls 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2007.
Sound about right?
ITA. Moms hover these days. Our moms didn't. I remember my mom yelling "Be home when the street lights come on" out the door behind me when I'd leave the house to go play. I was given hours on end where I didn't have to have a parent hovering over me when I went out to play.
Parenting has changed with the momolympics. Having a child watch Sesame street or play an educational computer game is now seen as more valuable than play time. After all, mom can't prove her worth if Johnny can't read at 3.
I had my kids older so I didn't fit with the current crop of moms when I did. I was amazed at the competition. Their kids weren't kids. They were little accomplishments to show off. I think there are two parts to not letting them play outside like we did. The first, I've already mentioned is it runs counter to early education to gain parental bragging rights. The second is, Johnny, might do what we did and do something stupid while out playing and then mom thinks she looks bad so she doesn't chance this happening by hovering when he is outside which means he's only outside when she can hover.
We did dumb things when we were kids but that was the norm. You did something stupid and learned from it. I remember, quite vividly, the year I learned that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I tried to push down my clubhouse which had a steel beam weighing the roof down (cleaned out dad's garage to make it and dad wanted his shelves back) and ended up with the beam on my foot when the structure swung back and launched the beam. OUCH!! I didn't do THAT again. I also leaned that when you fall out of a tree, you can't breathe for several minutes and that you should make sure the creek really is frozen over BEFORE you sled down the hill onto thin ice, and contrary to what the big kids tell you, you can't make sassafrass tea out of those red berries that grow on the little trees (tasted like crap)... You know, some of my best memories of childhood are afternoons when I had to invent things to do. It's too bad kids don't get that today.
It seems to me that moms have too much of their own self worth pinned to their children's accomplishments and behavior these days. Hence the every child gets a trophy movement. Gotta make sure everyone claps for MY kid...whether my kid deserves it or not.
Back in my day, there was no shame in learning to read AFTER you started school. That was what school was for. Now it seems mom has failed if Johnny isn't reading on a 3rd grade level before he starts kindergarten. Unfortunately, if he can, what has really happened is mom failed Johnny. Johnny isn't some little accomplishment to brag about. He's a child.
Someone just posted a thread, on the education board, about some research that has come out that says the result of early teaching is to dummy down the child. So the child loses. Let them play and be kids. That's what they're supposed to do.
I have a SIL who took this attitude to the extreme. She didn't so much as teach her kids the alphabet or to count to 10 before they started school. When the teacher sent home a note that said "A doesn't know his alphabet" she sent one back saying "That's because you didn't teach it to him yet.". Her kids played from the time they were born until they started school at 5. One just got her PhD and the other is about two years away from his. For all the flack she took, looks like she did her kids a favor.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 03-03-2012 at 03:09 AM..
The kids in my current neighborhood do still play outside (unsupervised and for hours on end), but in a previous neighborhood the kids were rarely around. They were far too busy with supervised activities, and their schedules seemed to be packed from morning to late at night.
FWIW, on the issue of parents being outside with the kids, too -- I admit, I've spent plenty of hours outside while my son plays. I don't see anything wrong with that; it's nice to be able to talk to other adults and interact with the neighbors. Parents can hang out and talk and the kids can play. I think the fact that so few adults are outside these days (in many neighborhoods) is a sad commentary on society, too. A lot of people just go from house to car to final destination and skip all the casual human interaction that comes in-between.
I have a SIL who took this attitude to the extreme. She didn't so much as teach her kids the alphabet or to count to 10 before they started school. When the teacher sent home a note that said "A doesn't know his alphabet" she sent one back saying "That's because you didn't teach it to him yet.". Her kids played from the time they were born until they started school at 5. One just got her PhD and the other is about two years away from his. For all the flack she took, looks like she did her kids a favor.
At risk of going off on a tangent, I think it's pretty weird for a parent not to "teach" a child the ABCs or how to count; isn't that something that most kids just absorb? Including through playing with their friends outside -- counting is part of many of the games my kid plays, and the ABC song is always a favorite little kid staple! Kids DO learn through play, and I think many of them are going to pick up staples like the letters and numbers, even if no one is officially "teaching" it to them.
Growing up in the 50's, we had plenty of kids out there to play with. Without parental interference, children will naturally form age-groups for their games. One of my favorite past-times was having Mom give us an old glass peanut butter jar with lid and going to all the bee bushes to catch bees. When the jar was full, we loosened the lid, flung the jar and the grass, and ran like H*LL. What fun !
Of course, our fathers had us all heavily insured.
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