What Today's Kids are Missing!

A thought provoking post Keerthi.

Today's kids do miss all the good stuff we grew up with - playing outside, going out by ourselves, getting to know extended family . I feel that growing in the west, today's kids are lacking the ability to go out themselves. None of our summers were planned we just went out to friends house by ourselves played on the streets getting into troubles with neighbors etc. Our kids do have planned playtime and other sports activities . Though my kids are not too much behind gadgets they don't have lots of friends either. Only during summer month and that too just for a month they get to play on gadgets and so I just let them. In the name of organized activities we take them to meet other kids as well as they learn a thing or two. That's become a way of life these days what to do. maarum ulagirkerppa maari thaan aaga vendum ...

 

OP- Although I don't completely disagree with you but I feel that kids today are as different from each-other as we were and we can't generalize. With that said, I grew up on a farm. There were no neighbors just our farm house.My sister and I were best (and only) friends once we got home from school but we've no issues socializing. We didn't have tons of toys etc but my parents bought us lot of books, took us to the city once a month and we ate out during these visits. We never learned to keep up with Jones. I had a lovely childhood with simple pleasures.
Now, as a parent, we try to inculcate similar habits in our children, We don't have a TV at home because we rarely watched TV when we had one, no smart phones (we still have our basic phones), ipads/laptops get turned off as soon as we return home from work until my son goes to bed. My 3 year old reads, plays with his toys (thanks to grand parents, he has almost a room full), weather permitting-plays outside in sand/water, rides his bike, does yoga with me, in short pretty much everything that I did (lot more supervised though). After having second child, I tried to play kids videos on my laptop to keep my son busy for a while but he would rather read a book or pretend play than watching videos. So, to a great extent it depends on how you raise your child.

 

Hai keerthi very true childhood has been robbed in more than one ways.
On the one hand they are playing with gadgets ,no sharing , vacations are spent in holiday resorts that are packed with no time to stand and stare.
I remember when we were kids at best we went to mysore, saw Tippus tomb the maharaja place and so on we were encouraged to make notes and on return both at school and home we used to write essays. we also had to do a hand work to keep in the kolu that year it could be a temple made of card board with all chart paper and things to stick.etc.
its all changed
they have to go to tution classes and start memorising stuff for entrance exam to coaching classes to study for entrance into IIT/medicine or what ever .
They are going from one tution to another not really learning .There scores are 90 to 100. yet they cannot even write 5 sentences on a given topic .they are neither having fun nor are they having good education .
Learning skills too have gone for a toss for they google to know anything ending up with a definition and not knowing anything about it holistically.
wonder where all this is going too!!

 

Very nice post keerthi. Nominated for Finest post!

 

Glad I could provide a different perspective. I am surprised to see the replies, seems most kids are not having quality time. This is quite different from my observation. I've seen at least 50:50 ratio with kids doing outdoorsy stuff and those glued to gadgets.

When I first moved to the US, I saw my postdoc advisor and his wife raising their son (then 8 year old) and I guess subconsciously I follow their way of parenting. My advisor, a professor and his wife, a medical doctor, have one child. They can buy him anything on this earth if they choose to but as my advisor once said- we want him to appreciate nice things, not feel entitled for just because his parents can afford it".
Another friends have twins and another child. Twins are in first grade and thanks to their Entomologist dad, they spend lot of time hiking and other outdoor activities, they already have an insect collection.
Same with my son, he is not even 3 yet but already knows over 10 bird species (his grandma is an avid bird watcher and on hikes with grandma and grandpa he learns real names of the birds), most of the common insects- crickets, grasshopper, praying mantis, firefly, mosquitoes, ants, hover fly, beetles- to name a few. He doesn't know how to open an app on a phone/ tablet like some of his age mates but we're in no rush to teach him all that. He will learn when he is ready/ need to learn. Until then, nature is full of awesome stuff.

 

Dear Keerthi88,

First of all, congratulations on being nominated to FP of the month by Sweetsmiley!

I note the angst you share in your post. Further, reading all the feed backs, I note that this is a common concern shared by many today. I suppose it is a matter of deep concern and worry if children isolate themselves with gadgets and computer screens and become oblivious to the world outside. This can surely happen and does happen I guess..but...Only if they do not receive the correct guidance from their parents.

Personally, I think every generation is different in that it is exposed to different and changing circumstances of the world. My first memories of play is that of my sister and myself playing with the three sisters who were our immediate neighbors. Both of our houses had gardens with trees, flowers and space enough for kids to play with mud, soil, rocks and trees without any worries. I remember being reprimanded for soiled clothes by my mom. But then, in the big city where we lived, we did not have the freedom to go to visit friends from school for conveyance was a problem and little girls didn't feel safe to take city buses or go far by themselves. We were very sheltered. We also did not have many toys as they were considered expensive!

Coming to my own two daughters, we lived in a small and cute little town those days and my daughters played at all times and days and went wherever they wanted on their cycles. We had fields and they learnt a lot from nature watching sheep, cattle and took walks along streams and learnt skating, riding and other outdoor fun. But when gadgets entered their lives, they enjoyed that too! Hatari the manual video game is still fresh in my memory!

Now my grandkids can handle iphones, ipads, videogames, kindle, kindlefire and what nots! At the same time, they also go hiking, play tennis, baseball and love water sports. My grandson's knowledge about the world and things around at times amazes me. I was nowhere to his know how at that age!!

So you see, it all depends on the circumstances! Depends on how much effort the parents put into bringing up their off springs and how aware are they of the problems that surround the times we live in. I think every generation has had its drawbacks. Surely there is a danger of over indulgence in anything. Moderation is very important and more important is the parent! Hence, it must be the parent-folk that are missing something today!

L, Kamla

 

In our days, we had less facilities but more fun. But nowadays, facilities are more and hence less fun.
Playing with too many people was a boon and we would be longing for the time. Today kids love playing alone in iPad. I saw a kid couldnt sleep, eat and even drink milk without ipad. His mom switch on the ipad first before making him sit for feeding food. I even surprised to hear to sleep he needs lullaby rhymes to be played where my cousin is a wonderful singer.

My question is: Are we making them addict?. Unless and until we introduce that to younger generation, how come they get it and fall addicted to it. Where have the strictness that our parents show on us go? Why these generation gets confused between strictness and love the parents have on them.

Too late to think. How to travel in this technology path is the challenging game. Slight miss.... GAME OVER!!! Meaning not in our hand to correct anything..