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We moved to FL.... we came from northern Midwest.... shocked our 9 yr old has nothing to do. He used to come home and run out and play...not any more - we have to have a play date now... how ....Stepford.
I'm dedicated to the happiness of my kids... I'm looking for info - give me city, state, even down to the neighborhood.....
Where is this country will I not run into this?????? or has everyone gone completely nuts?
I think this has more to do with neighborhoods and towns that broad regions. Do you live in a neighborhood with a lot of families? I mean, is it possible for your son to walk a short distance and have other kids to play with. Playing with a group of local kids is great because you get a group of children of different ages and I think kids learn a lot (for better or worse) from these relationships.
Granted I haven't exactly run outside and played all day in a little while, but the suburb of Boston I grew up in was great for this. It's really sad that there is anywhere that kids can't just walk outside and have fun with other kids (unless your like 2 miles from your nearest neighbor, and even then there is always biking).
edit: now that I think about it, when I was 9 I would sometimes call friends or they'd call me as opposed to just showing up at their house. Would this constitute as a "play date"?
I've never heard of neighborhoods having play dates in Texas, but I'm sure we have them. In Texas, you find lots of neighborhoods with parks where lots of kids play with eachother there and make friends.
We moved to FL.... we came from northern Midwest.... shocked our 9 yr old has nothing to do. He used to come home and run out and play...not any more - we have to have a play date now... how ....Stepford.
I'm dedicated to the happiness of my kids... I'm looking for info - give me city, state, even down to the neighborhood.....
Where is this country will I not run into this?????? or has everyone gone completely nuts?
I remember growing up in my neighborhood and a bunch of kids would play wiffle ball or baseball games with a tennis ball at my house, because the yard was so big to us at the time.
Where I live now, you do see kids playing in the neighborhood and it's pretty cool to see in the era of video games and the internet. There are still plenty of neighborhoods like that in my area.
Google "helicopter parents," keeping in mind that they're everywhere and you'll understand.
You know, I saw an article a while back that I discussed with a doctor friend of mine about helicopter parents, and how some doctors are blaming them for the rash of this generation's weird allergies (peanuts, etc) that far exceed previous numbers in past generations of kids.
Apparently, the younger generation of parents have hovered over their kids and literally followed them around with sani-wipes every step of the way. They prevent them from playing in the dirt and sand, and wouldn't allow them to crawl on the floor unless it was freshly mopped and sanitized. Some even took/take it to the extreme and home school the kids simply to keep them away from large groups of other kids and their germs, or in less severe cases, will only let their kids play with other kids when they (the parent) are around to supervise to make sure none of the other kids expose theirs to germs. The result? An entire generation of kids who have immune systems that are a fraction as strong as ours are, or those of our parents... hence, all kinds of strange health issues (and may some mental ones, but that's for a different topic).
Slight deviation there, but the "helicopter parents" idea extends to just more than people being anal about play dates - it goes further than that.
Slight deviation there, but the "helicopter parents" idea extends to just more than people being anal about play dates - it goes further than that.
That's true. I was partly being glib with that answer, but the concept extends far into young adulthood.
I think the OP needs a way to find other parents who subscribe to the priniciples in the Free Range Kids blog. I doubt that there are whole neighborhoods of people like that anymore. Most parents are busy obsessing over the latest kidnapping story... which just happens to be the front page topic on that blog.
I LOVE the Free Range Kids blog! I agree with the others; you're going to find this in every region of the country. Nowhere - or at least no state, region, and medium- to big city or suburb (and for all I know small towns, too) - is immune. It's going to vary by neighborhood, but the best bet is to hope you can find a group of fellow parents who don't fit the helicopter mold. They're out there, although sometimes they might not be obvious about it because they're tired of getting hassled by their fellow parents who are quick to judge them because they dare feed their kid the occassional non-organic Cheerio. (sorry, guess that touched a sore point!) It's ridiculous that parents who believe in letting their kids play outside (or walk to school, or to the park, etc.) so often now veers into activist territory, but if you have the time and the inclination you could work on starting the return-to-non-organized-play trend in your current neighborhood. Or, if you're willing to move but want or need to stay in your general area, there's a good chance that there's at least a couple of neighborhoods not too far from wherever you live now where kids still do play informally.
not a chance, we are in a subdivision and I've kept us on renting level rather than buying mostly because of this. 3 different locations in this subdivision that has over 800 kids.... not a one.
Most of the issues stem from the parents themselves being overly involved in everything as well as their kids doing karate, dance, scouts, music lessons, etc. These parents fill the kids spare time with so much crap it's rediculous. So in order to play with the kid you have to know their schedule, etc.
One friend of our son had a schedule that was so bad he only had 3:30 - 4:30pm on Wednesday and Saturday morning 9-11am available to play. Totally sick!
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