Going out to play

[Razzle Bathbone]

Here's a question for the younger posters here: have your parents ever told you to go out and play?

Just a few decades ago, kids used to go outside and play. They did this with no parents, no supervision of any kind. They'd play sports, they'd play make-believe, they'd make up all kinds of games.

In fact, there was a whole childrens' culture, complete with its own dialect, rituals and customs. It was taught to younger kids by the older ones. It included rules for byzantine variations on hide-and-seek or whatever else they played, rules for how you must respond to certain kinds of dares, rules for what forms of violence are acceptable or not, rules for which kinds of insults were acceptable or not, and so on. These traditions would vary from one neighbourhood to the next, but they all had one thing in common: they were created by little kids for little kids, and they were enforced by little kids, operating out of the view of adults.

The closest thing we have to that now is online social networking, but I have a hard time believing it can really be the same when adults can always poke their noses in. It's like there's always someone supervising.

There's a really interesting article about this here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks15-2008may15,0,3678233.column
Reading the article made me feel very sad for today's kids. They're not being allowed to live as children.

For the younger posters: What do you think of all this? Knowing that your neighbourhoods aren't really any more unsafe safe than ours were, would you want to go outside and play if you could?

For the teens: Aren't you pissed off about this? Why or why not?

For the older posters: Would you let your kids do what our parents used to let us do? And if not, why are you so afraid, when we faced the same risks when we were little?

 

[LewsTherin]

QFT

Paranoia is a scary thing, and unfortunately with the media being how it is, spreads like the plague. But that isn't a new thing at all. Being 15 myself, I'm not pissed off as much as saddened. My parents are pretty cool, they weren't the stereotypical glued-to-your-back stalkers that you sometimes see or hear about, and I'm pretty sure I turned out OK. But it is really sad to see young children lives being scheduled and structured so much. You know what I'm talking about, piano at 3 followed by hockey, then karate, then dance then language, etc.

It seems letting kids be kids has gone out of fashion.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

QFT

Paranoia is a scary thing, and unfortunately with the media being how it is, spreads like the plague. But that isn't a new thing at all. Being 15 myself, I'm not pissed off as much as saddened. My parents are pretty cool, they weren't the stereotypical glued-to-your-back stalkers that you sometimes see or hear about, and I'm pretty sure I turned out OK. But it is really sad to see young children lives being scheduled and structured so much. You know what I'm talking about, piano at 3 followed by hockey, then karate, then dance then language, etc.

It seems letting kids be kids has gone out of fashion.

Yep and when the little bugger curses you out now-a-days all you can do is tell the mom who won't do shit.

 

[Pohlkat]

Yeah, I get pissed every time I hear about this. The roughest situations I get myself into are the ones in my school, or on the rugby field. Not when I randomly feel like going for a run in the middle of the night, or wander about after a movie. Granted, there aren't a huge amount of people in Manitoba, but there just aren't the gangs and drug dealers and drive-by shooters prowling around at night, looking for someone to maim. I'm 17, so I don't have the legal ability to deny her meddling, however it gets to the point where I have to lie to her in order to go to a party. Where I rarely, if ever drink, let alone get drunk. If anything, I feel safer at night, because there aren't as many people on the roads. Perhaps this stems from a lack of driving experience, or the so called teenager-invincibility-complex, but there is a serious lack of interesting people out there. I believe that none of them had unstructured play, and therefore turned out to be timid, albeit dull people. I lived on an acreage in the middle of nowhere, and my parents let us have the run of the area, so I think that helped me. As for that lady and her kid she let find his way home? Good for her, her kid will probably turn out to be a confident, successful person.

I'm tired of the bubblewrap. I feel for those who haven't felt freedom.

 

[Aginor27]

Guess i could say I'm little pissed off. The mid to late 90's saw the release of so many video game consoles that we all began to grow out of "playing". I remember being younger and at elementary school on the playground, playing out scenarios with our own characters from anything ranging from Star Wars, to Pokemon. However, as mentioned the video game market expanded an awful lot in the years from 1996-2001, making kids more likely to play inside and get lost in a virtual world, rather than an imaginary one.

This reminds me of Summer (day) camps. Thinking about it now, they were, in effect a "go outside and play and get some fresh air with other kids.

However, these camps, in retrospect, were a social experiment. In many cases there would be some creepy weird ass kid that you'd not seen the likes of, or a mentally handicapped person.

There would also be real (and I'm speaking from experience) douchebags at these camps. They'd be complete assholes to you for no reason, and despite all this the counselors didn't give take notice, they'd be happy with those kids because they were good at the sports/games that the group did.

And then there were the deathmarches. That is, we'd walk about two kilometers from the place that the camps were run at, to a beach. ugh.


Sorry that i rambled on, but the topic really got me thinking. Kids these day are laying" less and less, and video games do seem to be a cause of this. IT's interesting to see how "playing" will change in the years to come.

 

[zirnitra]

well, I had this freedom growing up beautiful rural area big forest nearby not many people near but still. and I still preferred sitting at home playing games or watching television, so it may not be completely down to media hype telling parents that their children will be lead off and slaughtered if let outside.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

If the childs stupid enough to get in a car with a stranger I say let natural selection take em...Then again i'm a cruel, soulless,heartless, bastard.

 

[Ionait]

Poof

 

[John Galt]

Ah, the benefits of living in some backwoods Florida town come flowing in. My parents never really cared if I wandered around the neighborhood too much. We've got a couple acres of land and plenty of unclaimed or at least loosely monitored forest near my house so this makes for some decent wandering. The only problem is my natural apathy for outside activity coupled with the fact that it's Florida, where the two seasons can be described as "Steamy Hellhole of Summer" and Christmas Day, when you may or may not need to run the AC, it really depends on the year.

While there aren't that many people my age in my neighborhood, that's never been an issue. Taking a dog while exploring the abandoned camps of the homeless out in the woods is still pretty fun.

 

[Aginor27]

As i said, playing outside for me usually involved "make believe" in the backyard..or playing with action figures. But then i moved to a smaller town. the town was pretty big on "HUNTAN FISHAN SHOOTAN SNOWMOBILEAN" so it had a good number of nature areas. During the years i lived there i found myself exploring with friends ,ore than i had before...which one time lead to me getting caught in the undertow of the river and almost being pulled into the rapids...thank god for years of being a competitive swimmer..

Anyways, i think that if kids have the freedom to do it, they wiell, but if they live in the big city it's definitely somewhat harder.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Well, I'm 16 and if my mum told me to go out and play, I'd be rather confused...

But having five nieces and nephews, I won't let them out of my sight, especially in Bradford.

 

[kinch]

Are we living in riskier times? Or are we just more aware of the risks and take steps to prevent them ? Child molesters (and worse) have always been around, but it seems now there's more focus on them, and more media about where they live and how prevalent their crimes are. I guess if you want to look back to your childhood, and you say you feel sad that kids nowadays don't get that "outdoors experience", I can understand - but on the flip side of the coin, think of the kids who were abused or murdered because of that attitude, and realise that in modern times they might have been saved.

No right or wrong answer, just lots of possible interpretations....

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Are we living in riskier times? Or are we just more aware of the risks and take steps to prevent them ? Child molesters (and worse) have always been around, but it seems now there's more focus on them, and more media about where they live and how prevalent their crimes are. I guess if you want to look back to your childhood, and you say you feel sad that kids nowadays don't get that "outdoors experience", I can understand - but on the flip side of the coin, think of the kids who were abused or murdered because of that attitude, and realise that in modern times they might have been saved.

No right or wrong answer, just lots of possible interpretations....

Kids are more likely to be hit by in a car accident then raped.

 

[MysteriousSquirrel]

when my folks made me go out, it was the classic "in or out" dilemma. if i wanted out, i wasnt alound back in until dinner. If i wanted in, i wasnt allowed out. I dont know why they had to be like that. It was scarring.

 

[Ionait]

Poof

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

when my folks made me go out, it was the classic "in or out" dilemma. if i wanted out, i wasnt alound back in until dinner. If i wanted in, i wasnt allowed out. I dont know why they had to be like that. It was scarring.

My parents were kind of like that too. For some reason we couldn't go in and out, it bothered them? "You just came in for a drink ten minutes ago! Pick a side" kind of thing. Maybe the AC was running?

To "Kids are more likely to be hit by in a car accident then raped."
Yeah. But that one kid in 1,000 or whatever the statistic, is SOMEONE'S kid. And I don't want it to be mine.

So you would rather have your kid hit by a car and most likely die then raped?

 

[Ionait]

Poof

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

when my folks made me go out, it was the classic "in or out" dilemma. if i wanted out, i wasnt alound back in until dinner. If i wanted in, i wasnt allowed out. I dont know why they had to be like that. It was scarring.

My parents were kind of like that too. For some reason we couldn't go in and out, it bothered them? "You just came in for a drink ten minutes ago! Pick a side" kind of thing. Maybe the AC was running?

To "Kids are more likely to be hit by in a car accident then raped."
Yeah. But that one kid in 1,000 or whatever the statistic, is SOMEONE'S kid. And I don't want it to be mine.

So you would rather have your kid hit by a car and most likely die then raped?

What the world? I don't want ANYTHING bad to happen to my kid ever. I think that's every parents stance on that situation. For the most part. Sometimes we want them to trip a little so they'll listen and tie their shoes next time. But come on. What is the point of your question? To make me sound silly?

I was stating, that to a parent, the statistic describing rape's unlikeliness will not deter a parent from being as protective as they want to be.

Well I was stating its madness to let a kid in a car, But not let them outside to play on their own.

 

[Ionait]

Poof