posted on August 4, 2000 08:39:18 AM
I went yard saleing last week and once again I felt like I was in the twilight zone.
Where were all the children ?
Four hours of yard saleing in very nice suburban neghiborhoods and once again I saw not one child playing outside. I know many are addicted to video and video games...but not one child was out there.
I have been doing paintings lately based on childhood memories of growing up in New England and almost all my ideas have been about outside activities, so this has been on my mind. We spent a great deal of time outdoors when I was a child.
It has been hot outside lately but this weekend was beautiful and it is cooler in the mornings. These neghiborhoods all had beautiful parks,...all empty. There were adults out jogging and walking thier dogs.
Okay, I know these people have children because they sure are selling off enough baby crap.
What is going on here? These are beautiful neghiborhoods that look like perfect places to raise children. Are parents afraid , overprotective or do they just not value that outside adventure time like we did as kids?
Well parents, whats up?
posted on August 4, 2000 08:43:39 AM
We don't live in suburbia, but in a very rural area. We have 7-1/2 acres here for my kids to romp on. It's a battle to get my son to go outside to play! And it makes me crazy. He wants to be parked in front of the TV or Nintendo all the time.
I played outside when I was a kid too. Roller skating, hopscotch, jacks, or just laying on the grass, looking for shapes in the clouds.
Maybe all this technology has done something bad to our kids - they don't know how to entertain themselves anymore without a big box talking to them.
posted on August 4, 2000 09:08:49 AM
Around here, the kids are all at day-camp or overnight camp, at soccer practice, or on vacation with their parents.
posted on August 4, 2000 09:19:11 AM
In my neighborhood kids are everywhere - a nearby park is packed with kids and parents literally daylight to sundown every day.
This summer my ten year old occupied himself by forming a neighborhood "animal search and rescue" group. They spent the summer having outdoor training classes, etc. and searched and found everything from fallen birds to stray dogs. 'Course it was more work on my part cause they weren't allowed to approach any animals unless one of the parents were on hand. Still, they all took the "job" so seriously that we didn't mind getting called out on an occasional "emergency."
Outdoor child play is alive and well in this neck of the woods. Thank goodness.
posted on August 4, 2000 02:30:25 PM
My kids play outside all the time now -- but now we live on a mountain with a stream and waterfalls and all that stuff.
When we lived in suburbia we most often lived in areas where you might expect to hear random gunfire at anytime -- so mostly they didn't play outside. No surprise there.
However in my folks neighborhood -- they are firmly upper middle class -- kids were outside all day, every day. Playing with their nifty stuff -- with breaks for gaming in the house of the most willing parent.
(School starts here again in a week or so -- so if I were a kid I'd be yukking it up outside. But kids don't recognize how wonderful being allowed to randomly wander the yard all day really is. )
posted on August 4, 2000 03:03:19 PM
I really feel that alot of kids today don't know how to enjoy playing outside. When I was growing up, we didn't have nintendo, vcr's or computers. We played outside. Played hide and seek after sundown or had water balloon fights. I remember the worse thing my mother could say to us was if we came inside the house one more time we were staying inside. I remember summer days spent at the pool at the Navy base or down at Strickland's lake cooking out hamburgers and hotdogs. Then coming home all wore out and sunburned but so happy to have spent the day playing and running to your heart's content. Yep, I think some kids today somehow just don't have as much fun as some of us did at their age.
posted on August 4, 2000 06:35:19 PM
"if we came inside the house one more time we were staying inside - I had completely forgotten about this threat until Theresa mentioned it! I grew up in a lower-middle income neighborhood and we played outside from morning to dark - and a little later if we could get away with it! The best evenings were when some of the neighbors would bring over their lawn chairs and sit in the driveway with my parents thereby extending our outdoor time even later!
Nobody had a swimming pool so we played in the sprinkler so long that worms started coming up out of the ground! Of course, that was before Chemlawn and all the junk that kills any living organism in your yard.
Even in the cold snowy winters here in the Northeast, I can remember playing outside in the snow for so long that you had to go back inside to get a dry pair of mittens!
Of course, back in the good old days (!) there were lots of woods and parks for us to play in. Around here, they're cutting down practically all the trees so they can erect another development of beige houses, oh, excuse me, beige estates!
Don't you know what happened to all the children? Billy wished them away for thinking bad thoughts about him. He wishes away everyone who thinks bad thought about him. He does this because they're BAD CHILDREN, YES!, BAD BAD CHILDREN. You better be nice and think good things about him or he will wish you into the cornfield too.
tegan, don't you think that Billy is a nice boy? If not, he might turn you into a jack in the box!
[ edited by yeager on Aug 5, 2000 06:28 PM ]
posted on August 5, 2000 06:31:41 PMYeager Please tell me that you're only describing a movie? If so, what's the title? Sounds like a cold one. Did you ever see "The Bad Seed" - if not, check it out... might be Billy's sister!
It was an episode from The Twilight Zone from about 1962, where Billy Mumy, (the boy on Lost in Space) who at the age of about 5 had a power to "wish away" people and things that he didn't like. He would wish them into the cornfield on the farm. This cornfield was a place where the victims were never to be found again. Some of the things were dogs that barked too loud, or anything that made him mad, including the neighborhood kids.
His parents were having a birthday party for a friend who got drunk and mouthy. Billy didn't like him so he turned him into a jack in the box. Billy controled everything.
Now about The Bad Seed. HOW DARE YOU say anything hurtful about poor innocent, little Rhoda. She was a real angel. A kind child who was just misunderstood and blamed for everyhting including setting the groundskeeper on fire. She and I are SO much alike. She is my favorite sister!
NOT!
checked for spelling
[ edited by yeager on Aug 5, 2000 06:51 PM ]
posted on August 5, 2000 07:02:07 PM
Oh my--just the topic to bring it all home. My fellas are in their twenties, so selling some of their toys and games. At the flea--today--had 12 boardgames at 50 cents each. Didn't sell a one--but the guy beside me selling video games had a killing. And it twern't no $.50. Sign of the times? Gonna put those board games in the attic and forget about them for a decade or two----then let's hope there is more interest.
Is twern't a word? Hey--in W PA--there are a lot of strange play on words.
posted on August 5, 2000 09:40:46 PM
Yeager.. I loved that episode of twilight zone.
I'm very respectful of children named Billy.
I also hope that death really does look like Robert Redford. If you have to meet him eventually anyway, why not?
)