RQOTD: This one is a bit more serious

This will probably sound weird, but I think my kids would do better with a little more "boredom". They are so used to always having a computer or TV to entertain them that they rarely have to come up with creative ways to entertain themselves like we did.

I also agree that the ability to play outside for hours on end is something our kids are sorely lacking. I know this is partially my fault because I DO worry if they are out of my sight, even though I know the risks are way overblown.
 
Robin Carlton said:
When I was a kid, I was also afraid of poltergeists and bigfoot. We lived in the hollywood hills and I was literally afraid bigfoot would come to my window, break it and take me away to the wilderness. I also thought a werewolf lived under my bed too.

Seriously, I was a wreck as a kid.
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We are at the top of the state and there is a town here where there is actually a celebration JUST for/about Big Foot. The town has a GIANT big foot statue. For spring break we went that way on our way to the ocean and the kids FREAKED out when they saw it. Every time we were on a part of the coastal highway where there were big trees/mossy/'big foot' forests, they kept looking for him. My middle kiddo, couldn't say Sasquatch though....so we were always on the look out for Scratch Crotch. :D
 
Robin Carlton said:
My mom let me watch Unsolved Mysteries too, KCB! Is it weird that I will let my kids run all over the neighborhood alone, and will drop katie off at the mall or the movies with friends, but I wont let my kids watch scary movies or much TV at all?
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I don't think it is weird because for me watching anything scary would get all sorts of weird ideas in my head and I'd start being scared about all sorts of things.
 
DawnMarch said:
This will probably sound weird, but I think my kids would do better with a little more "boredom". They are so used to always having a computer or TV to entertain them that they rarely have to come up with creative ways to entertain themselves like we did.
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I totally get you! I was stuck waiting in an airport the other day, and noticed how many of those waiting were on phones and iPads. The hubs himself was reading on his iPad, so we weren't talking. I made the conscious effort to not read on my phone and just people-watch. It was kind of fun. I did wish I had another fellow bored person so we could talk.
 
Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Now they get to watch them whenever, just like everything else with the internet and cable TV. Nothing seems special when you can watch stuff whenever you want. I remember looking forward to Saturday mornings in my PJs eating fruity pebbles or some other special treat we never ate on any other day.
 
My very first thought was the time spent outside playing. I do make Luke play outside but most days he's in after an hour or so... 1. b/c he's bored b/c the only kid in the neighborhood to play with is a 5 year old punk who thinks rules don't apply to him. and 2. he "needs" to get his video game time in.

That led me to the thought of no distractions. Kind of what Jennifer was saying. It bugs me to death when we go on a family outing- vacations or just eating out- and Joel's on his phone the whole time and Luke is on his DS. I can tell Luke to get off his DS, which I normally do... but I'm not Joel's mom. lol
 
Having a big close knit family. I grew up within walking distance of my Grandmother, 5 Aunts and 10 Cousins who were around my age. It makes me sad Aiden doesn't have easy access to our extended family.
 
Robin Carlton said:
I think we're more protective because our news is a 24/7 fear mongering multi-billion dollar industry now. I dont think crime is happening more often than it was when we were kids, we just hear about it more now and have been conditioned to be afraid of the boogeyman.

I let my kids run all over the neighborhood, but I was a scaredy cat as a kid because my mom watched the news a lot and I was afraid of all of those things. I actually slept with a steak knife under my pillow because I was afraid the LA night stalker was going to get me. I refuse to raise my kids the same way, afraid of all the bad guys, I want them to have the freedom of childhood, so they do.
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I totally agree. There were bad people around when I was growing up but you just didn't hear about it 24/7. A girl in my small town was raped and murdered while she was running at the high school track one weekend day in 1980. We were seniors in high school. Population of our town was about 1200. I let Cheyanne roam around but with common sense - not at night alone, not with people she doesn't know very well, etc. She goes to the basketball courts in our town which is up the road about 1/4 mile and meets a group of friends there, bikes to her friend's homes, goes to the mall with friends, etc. etc. At our camp she has even more free range. I don't want her to be scared to live and she's learning to cope and handle herself sensibly.
 
Laura_A said:
Competition

I hope I don't step on anyone's toes here, but I think the whole "everyone is a winner" thing is doing our kids a huge disservice. I agree that, if you tried your best, you're not a loser, but we're not teaching our kids how to lose gracefully and have good sportsmanship when every single person on a team wins a trophy just for showing up or schools can't give away prizes for, for example, the neatest handwriting or getting the highest score on the Math test, for fear of someone's feelings getting hurt. I believe competition is healthy...it teaches us to work hard toward something we want.
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THIS!!!! I so agree with you! I've been saying this about our school sports program. No kids get cut from the junior high teams! It's ridiculous! They have a soccer team with 25 kids on it so no one's feelings get hurt and only 9 can play at any given time so you have all these kids who get mad because they ride the bench. I'm sorry, but if your kid can't handle being cut at the age of 12/13 then don't try out! This has been a pet peeve of mine for years. Other sports are the same way. There's a reason we have a sports program that starts in Kindergarten - they learn the skills, learn sportsmanship, etc. and no one gets cut from these programs but once you get to the Jr. High level they need to be able to handle rejection! When they get to high school they're going to be shocked when they don't make a team because we've been mollycoddling them up to that point :mad:
 
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I think all the electronics {that I let} in my kids life keeps them from learning how to entertain themselves; I think there is this whole generation of folks who don't know how to be bored, which I worry will lead to a lack of creativity, but maybe it's just a different kind of creativity.

But I would hate to grow up now where everything I did went online for all the world to see. I read an article recently about how Instagram is affecting youth, how their self esteem is tied to how many "likes" they get and so forth, and I am pretty sure I would have bombed if I'd had to live that way.
 
This.

i wish my kids could just play outside and run the neighborhood without having to worry about "strangers." we live in a small town/neighborhood, but i still feel they need to be in my sights (or with a trusted friend). when we were kids, we roamed the neighborhood from sun up until sundown.
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the biggest thing...probably just playing and being a dumb kid, the whole outside thing again. I remember playing jumprope, hide and seek, catching grasshopper and kick the can of all things for HOURS... I was so mad at night when the street lights came on cause that was my sign to come in for the night :(

Now my kids are so used to being overstimulated that if they sit for 3.5 minutes without something to do they whine they are bored and it is crazy! Just play ... be a kid...


and also I totally agree with the whole everyone is a winner bs... no, no they are not. If you want to win something you need to work your tail off for it and prove it, you need to be able to be glad for other when they win and come to understand that you can try harder and try again
 
Passing notes, you know writing a bazillion notes back and forth with your friends and folding them up funky. Loved that back in the day. Also my kids can't really read cursive and it horrifies me. ( yes, I'm working on it but they don't care so it's a battle)

I can agree with quite a bit of the other stuff. My kids did/do play outside a lot though, I have to force my ten year old to come in on a regular basis. She'd much rather be out running around with her friends than doing anything inside.
 
Robin - I LOVED Unsolved Mysteries was a kid... for the LONGEST time I wanted to work in a crime lab... which now my hubby find really funny... I refuse to watch anything scary or intense... and blood and stuff grosses me out... haha!

The one thing I think kids miss out on is just being a kid. I hope I don't touch onto too many toes, and I'm sorry if I do... but I think some parents just over schedule their kids... I think of friends of ours... go to school all day, home to gather stuff - not even eat together before out the door to sports or some other activity until 9-10pm, every night of the week... and the weekends are all tied up with sports competitions or music lessons... when can the kid depress? and it's sad, in my opinion that a child has to depress... :(
 
DawnMarch said:
This will probably sound weird, but I think my kids would do better with a little more "boredom". They are so used to always having a computer or TV to entertain them that they rarely have to come up with creative ways to entertain themselves like we did.
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Oh my gosh, yes!!! The other week we had 2 min to wait for J's swim lesson and he is asking for my iphone... uhm, no... you have 2 min to wait... you are going to learn to wait without being entertained!
 
Laura_A said:
Competition

I hope I don't step on anyone's toes here, but I think the whole "everyone is a winner" thing is doing our kids a huge disservice. I agree that, if you tried your best, you're not a loser, but we're not teaching our kids how to lose gracefully and have good sportsmanship when every single person on a team wins a trophy just for showing up or schools can't give away prizes for, for example, the neatest handwriting or getting the highest score on the Math test, for fear of someone's feelings getting hurt. I believe competition is healthy...it teaches us to work hard toward something we want.
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This! Oh man this!!! I had to search to find a soccer team that kept score. Sure I want my kids to have fun at sports/dance recitals etc. But I also want my kids to learn what it means to improve and practice. I want my kids to learn what it means to get first and second and third. I want them to be able to look at their competetion and say "Good job!" or "Nice goal!" I think its important to know that you are not the best at something but if you work hard you can get better. Life is work and if we reward everyone for everything what we teaching them? :cursing: :mad: :confused:
 
freedom.

They're so over scheduled, over watched, over entertained, over stimulated that they don't have freedom to just be kids.

Yes, sometimes there are reasons why kids can't be allowed to roam the city at the age of 6, but kids are still not given credit to be kids, not a lot is required of them, and they aren't taught to just be.
 
I agree that having to play outside because I was tired of playing with my Speak and Spell or reading or gazing adoringly at my Lisa Frank sticker collection is one thing my kids are missing out on!

Another thing is that we didn't have to worry about our online reputation back then or online bullying. Sure, you would have the mean kids that bullied and picked on peeps in person, but the atrocious behavior of some kids (and adults) online is one thing I am so happy I was not exposed to as a kid...
 
I totally agree, the world was no less safe when we were kids than today, we just hear about it more, but I do wish my kid could have that same freedom.
 
I agree with all. My biggest one is just being disconnected from the world and have family time. I actually have to walk around and collect up all electronic devices and put them away now. It makes me crazy. The kids tend to be okay with it. It is the hubby that I usually have to fight over it with. LOL

As a kid I was outside ALL day. I hated coming inside. HATED IT. Now I have to beg my kids to spend some time out in the yard. Craziness. Every kid needs sunshine and dirt! lol
 
maryinaz said:
I'd just like my boys to have to walk to the TV to turn the channel. :blink:
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hehehe. Remember the TVs that you turned on with static electricity? They had the 2 metal bars and they always zapped you. Now those were fun. Kids need those.
 
Definitely playing outside from sunup to sundown. I grew up in a neighborhood with lots of kids around the same age and we now live in a neighborhood with older people who all have kids that are grown. So my kids don't really have anyone to play with but one another (and they don't get along that well at the moment....rough ages right now!). This thread has actually been really reassuring about todays kids becuase seriously, my 4 year old starts whining if he goes more than a few minutes without constant interaction....I remember just running off and playing when I was a kid!

And totally agree on the competition thing, too. I'm so in line with so many of you...what a cool group of like minded people!
 
I agree with so much of this!! I do love having a large fenced in yard right now bc my kids are so happy to play outside all day!! They get bored inside without games or tv, but they're so happy still to just be outside, even with no toys - I like that they can still be imaginative out there :) I will not let them out of my sight though. Lots of their friends (they're in 2nd grade) run the neighborhood, and walk the mile walk home from school alone. My girls desperately want that freedom on their own, but I'm so not ready for that... I've watched their friends walk to cross the street without looking and almost get hit! I don't quite trust my girls yet without me - around friends they're different and I won't have them walking with a friend and forget to look bc they're chatting or their friend doesn't look and someone gets hit :( our house is on the same rd as the school and it's 20 mph through all the housing, but a lot of peeps don't follow it :(
 
emmasmommy said:
i wish my kids could just play outside and run the neighborhood without having to worry about "strangers." we live in a small town/neighborhood, but i still feel they need to be in my sights (or with a trusted friend). when we were kids, we roamed the neighborhood from sun up until sundown.
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This is exactly what I was thinking. Kids today are missing out on the freedom that we once had to just be kids.
 
Listening to the radio every Sunday night for the Top 40 songs, and then recording them on your tape deck! You had to listen really carefully, so you started recording your song after the announcer stopped talking and the song started!
 
I will say that I think my girls are missing out on playing outside carefree and going over to friends' house and walking over there and doing sleepovers. I know this has been discussed already. But I don't let my girls do this for many reasons. 1) It is blazing out in the summer, too hot to play outside. 2)I do know what is out there. I see it every day at my job and I saw it for 3.5 years before that. I am really over protective and I know that but after what I see come across my desk every day, I just can't let my kids go out there.

But I do not think they are deprived in any way. The still have friends and they are active in sports. I am just careful where they go.
 
I get the impression that we're not the norm. Our boys are 12 and 14 now. We didn't have cable TV for a long time and we still don't watch it much. They don't get bored much, but that's because they've learned to do things to keep themselves from being bored. They do like their computer games, iPod's, etc., but they also read a lot, draw, play with their legos, play chess and other board games. They always have a book with them when we go out - I have to tell them to put the books down when we're waiting for our food in a restaurant so that we can interact as a family. They're no different than I was, though; I read constantly.

We live in a neighborhood where I feel relatively comfortable letting them roam around with their friends and play in the woods. They want to play XBox and computer games, too, but they do get outside and play.

We live in a pretty competitive area. Until they were 10, their soccer teams didn't keep score, but after that they did and had tournaments where only the winner gets a trophy. There's fierce competition to get onto the sports teams and some academic teams, too, at their middle school. School awards at both elementary and middle school level are given out for achievement and leadership.

Overall, the environment in which my kids are growing up isn't significantly different than the environment in which I grew up. I didn't realize how good we had it :)
 
I ran across this hysterical article today about the power of boredom in building kids' creativity, and had to share.

The Heady Thrill of Having Nothing to Do
Is constant stimulation hurting our creativity—and the economy? Scott Adams pays tribute to tedium
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576486412642177904.html

[Well, from some links, it makes you subscribe, but here is an excerpt:]

I make my living being creative and have always assumed that my potential was inherited from my parents. But for allowing my creativity to flourish, I have to credit the soul-crushing boredom of my childhood.

I grew up in the tiny mountain town of Windham, N.Y., and graduated with the same 40 kids I met in kindergarten. When we picked teams during gym class, there was no mystery about which team would win. The fourth-grader with a mustache would hit four home runs, and the kid with a limp would get thrown out at first. I lived a surprise-free childhood.

The rabbit ears on our television only pulled in one channel well, and we grew accustomed to the picture rolling for the entire evening. Our radio wasn't much better, but if I kept my hand on the antennae I could hear a rhythmic noise that I later learned to call music.

We didn't have many toys by modern standards. But I discovered that if you have a blob of clay and some Lincoln Logs, you can make your own toy rifle. You can use those same materials to create a FrankenBarbie doll with body-image issues and a G.I. Joe that looks like an angry starfish with snow shoes. I'd take turns shooting at both of them, sometimes using the Lincoln Log rifle and sometimes the handgun that I whittled out of a block of wood. I blame society for all of that. . . .
 
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KateD said:
We live in a pretty competitive area.
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It is so competitive where we live that people spend thousands of dollars training their kids from a young age for sports, cheerleading, baton twirling, etc. It is kind if ridiculous, if you ask me. What's so wrong about sports and activities for fun, socialization and fitness?

Competition is fine, but there doesn't seem to be a middle ground between the special needs opportunities and the highly competitive. :unsure:
 
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