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We tell kids that they can't go outside and/or hang out with friends because of kidnapping, bullying, peer pressure, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, sex, falling behind on schoolwork, etc., and then we complain about our kids always being inside on their phones. Such hypocrisy.
lol all that can happen online (including alcohol, cigs, drugs...coordinating meetup locations, etc)
If you know people who forbid their kids from going outside, then you know people who are too lazy or preoccupied to go outside with them and supervise.
OR they live in an area with no outdoor areas for recreation and the parents are limited in affordable options. LIke they live too far from a YMCA or baseball field or whatever.
Just like all these people who claim "My dog doesn't like walking". Every dog in the world LOVES walking or will love walking with just a bit of rehabilitation.
I think the rest of the list is a straw man. Those are normal VALID issues you deal with in parenting. OF COURSE you don't "send your kids out to play" in the midst of a bunch of general other kids you don't even know...potentially raised by wolves...and UNSUPERVISED.
Also, it's "easy" to stop the indoor "phone" [electronic] culture. And by easy, I mean a lot of work.
I'm raising my kids to go outside. Thats how it was for me. I played video games and watched TV (didn't use a computer til I was like 11-12 and then it was my mom's, not my own) but my parents made sure I got plenty of outdoor play whether its baseball in the backyard, jumping on the trampoline, riding the swings, hanging out with the neighbour kids etc. etc.
I actually used my imagination as a kid. Had sword fights with sticks, pretended to be pirates, made up adventure stories with my brother etc. And we didn't have a pool so every summer we went to my aunt's pool, or we just played in the backyard with a hose or had water balloon fights. Kids need to be able to do that. Don't keep them locked up inside. Don't spoil them with unlimited internet access (there's more danger to them from a cyber predator than a random creep picking them off the front yard) Encourage imagination and play.
My kids are going out year round. Going to parks, riding bikes around the neighbourhood, making snowforts, going sledding, swimming in pools and lakes. Its only a "sign of the times" because of how parents raise their kids. I also don't understand how parents who grew up in the 80s and 90s, in a time where kids had more outdoor play and more freedom, have raised their kids so differently then how their generation was raised. What brought this shift? Its funny you watch a show like Stranger Things or you watch something that actually came out in the 80s like the Goonies, and kids today are nothing like that. Parents shelter them too much and give them all these gadgets, even if they have bad grades or misbehave, and I've seen it with my youngest step-brother. The kid is literally illiterate, misbehaves all the time, has repeated 2nd or 3rd grade, how many times? What does his dad do? Nothing. Give him as many video games and tablets as he wants, doesn't emphasise him working on homework or school work. I also think its this overhype of crime in the media. Its safer now than the 80s and 90s and you wouldn't realise it.
Exactly. You're RAISING your kids. Not just sending them outside with no direction or supervision.
The premise of the OP does not, at all, apply to my family or my community, where kids are constantly running around outside, participating in outside activities/sports, biking/walking to school, etc.
Exactly. You're RAISING your kids. Not just sending them outside with no direction or supervision.
If you can't trust your kids to go outside you may have already failed as a parent! I mean, there are real reasons not to let them go out -- if I lived in Chicago where there's a gang war raging and people being hit by stray bullets every day, OK -- everyone can play inside. But I hope "inside" doesn't have to mean "glued to an electronic device."
We tell kids that they can't go outside and/or hang out with friends because of kidnapping, bullying, peer pressure, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, sex, falling behind on schoolwork, etc., and then we complain about our kids always being inside on their phones. Such hypocrisy.
That's why parents need to make time for their children. Stop with the excuses that I need to work in order to pay the bill. The moment you decided to have a kid, you should know better that you need to make time out for your kid and be there for your kid. Parents should be the one that kids always go to regardless of what situation they are in, and be open with them and understanding their point of view. Sometime kids don't tell grown up stuffs because they often had so many bad experience in the past where their parent tell them no this and no that, but never explain to them as why.
Exactly. You're RAISING your kids. Not just sending them outside with no direction or supervision.
See, I went outside without adult supervision all the time, but my parents made sure I would usually be with someone else my age or older, but if I was to go outside alone, which I would do, usually riding a scooter or something, I had to stay around the neighbourhood and I couldn't go all around late at night. Somethings were off limits, of course. For example, in middle school I had to stay with my little brother in an after school park because my mom would work long shifts. The park was like 4-5 blocks away from the school, easily walkable, however I had to take a school bus. Middle school got out at 2:20, elementary at 3:00. Instead of the bus dropping me off right there after I get off, they would make me wait until it picked up my brother from elementary, and I hated it, so for a few weeks I skipped the bus and just walked to the park. Once the bus driver noticed and called my folks, I got read the riot act
Naah, I had certain liberties which expanded as I got older, but my parents set boundaries. They set boundaries but they allowed freedom and that's how you gotta do it. Parenting ain't easy, everyone makes mistakes, but you gotta let your kids live a little. Don't be careless but don't be overwhelming. Mind you I grew up in Miami which has higher than average crime rate, but I lived in a safe quiet neighbourhood. I love where I live in Saint Paul, don't know if I'll be in this neighbourhood after I am married and settled down, but somewhere like this is perfect to raise kids. And its not boring suburbia either.
It's all part of a generation cycle. What comes around goes around. Back in the 1970's, 1980's people grew up as latch key kids, and felt as if they were raising their selves. For many of these kids once they became parents they grew overprotective and over parented to make up what they didn't have.
I predict that for kids being raised now, the ones constantly staying inside with little independence and later milestones in their journey to adulthood, they will be on the leading edge of a drive to less overprotective, more easygoing parents. Plus technology like smartphones will be another catalyst to this new parenting movement.
I don't know many people who "forbid" their kids going outside, but the reverse isn't entirely accurate or universal, either. I was a latch-key kid of the early and late 90s, went to the store, bowling alley, playground, rode my bike, went to the movies and mall in middle school, and played with friends in my neighborhood unsupervised (with check-in times). A lot of those activities were in close walking distance. Such is not always the case, and hasn't been in most places I've lived. I've lived in metro areas with 90+% in our area young professionals with very few kids. It wasn't exactly the kind of free-range experience I had. I was also an only child for many years, so if I didn't want to play alone, I had to venture outside to play with other neighborhood kids.
But the whole "kids should go outside and play" assumes that all kids have the desire to do x, y and z simply because it's what their parents did way back. I enjoyed playing with the neighborhood kids, but also liked playing with my barbies and polly pockets and watching Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bruce Lee movies and building things with my legos or playing on my video games.
I certainly don't expect my kids to have the same desire to do what I did during my youth. My older two kids are introverted and prefer solitary activities to playing with a bunch of other kids. They'd rather read for hours, draw, write, watch baking/cooking videos and tutorials (my 11 year old), research their interests, practice coding, make stop motion movies, read comics, watch movies, study Japanese (my 13 year old), than play with their scooter, ride their bike or whatever else outside. They also have access to a lot of electronics from their own TV, gaming consoles, tablets, etc., and they still manage to carve out a portion of their free time engaging in productive work. My in-laws have spotty internet at their place, so it really isn't an option, but the kids have a zip line, bikes, turtles, tons of land and places to hide, run, etc., but sometimes, a lot of times, they spend most of their time indoors, building legos, reading, and writing.
Simply having access to electronics needn't spoil today's youth and the "answer" isn't necessarily "go outside and play." If my older two kids weren't interested in playing outside they'd simply take a book and read on the porch or lounge in the hammock.
I can see where you're coming from, but it's also a little sad. I can't imagine not wanting to play outside. Sure, when we wete older we did things like going to the movies/mall or nintendo, but there was nothing like playing outside. From 5 to 14 we lived outside.
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