Comments on: Life Potatoes

Dick Meyer On Overly Idle Kids & The Decline Of Common Sense

[donteplays]

Okay I enjoy reading peoples opinions on how today's kids have strayed from the fun-loving, outdoor roaming ways of yesteryear, but society has changed so much. I am not that far removed from childhood and as probably on of the youngest people to right a comment I must say playing outside is not what it used to be. Now you have to worry about so many things. One of the most important being the sexual predators that live in our neighborhoods. Have you ever taken the time to go on the website that convicted predators register on? If so, you'll be amazed at how many red dots are found by your home, each representing some vile person that may take advantage of little Johny running around outside. Maybe I'm just worrying too much, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[puzzler125]

I think I have a simple solution but it requires parents being stern about something...limit online access and television to an hour a day. Also, no television or "no technology" days are something I'm trying this summer and I'm reading more!

[marbru-2009]

When I was a kid (not all that long ago) we'd take off after breakfast, drop in for lunch and be back in time for dinner. We'd explore the prairie near my home pretending were adventurers, etc., ride bikes, play baseball or football and generally entertain ourselves. We didn't need a TV or video games to entertain us because we had great imaginations and could be anything we wanted to. If we weren't outside, we read a book (yes, READ a book)or play board games - life was so much fun and very happy. If we did something wrong, WE suffered the consequences (usually a good spanking, which didn't damage our psyche one bit) and didn't try to blame it someone else..... we didn't have a lot of material things but we had lots of love and lots of fun.

[mswolfestock]

If we don't get today's kids outdoors (playing, hiking, fishing, biking, hunting, camping, etc etc) they will grow up to pave over all the grass and cut down all the trees because nobody taught them to appreciate our beautiful world. I was lucky enough to live on the edge of the suburbs as a kid. Staying indoors was unheard of in my crowd - we had to be pretty *** sick before we'd quit playing. It was also no big deal for me to ride my bicycle all the way across my home town (Novato California) to visit a friend who had moved from my neighborhood. I don't think that today's kids even understand what-all they are missing, and that is truly a tragedy. I love that commercial about taking a kid fishing. The little girl looks at the camera and says, "Take me fishing, because my wedding day will be sooner than you think." Parents, listen up, please.

[cfin5]

earthmom56......Great post, you thunder swiper! LOL.......At a very young age I had that privledge of a huge, almost a full canopy woods of oak, sugarmaple, and ash trees to play in all by myself. Building leanto forts and swinging around on grapevines. And swiping some of Mom's paring knives for very important spear making projects. (I dont think my Mom understood that) I can still remember playing on some HUGE old wormy american chestnut logs that were still laying in the woods at that time. Those were the VERY GOOD ole' days.

[asor1-2009]

with a baseball cap on and not take it off! It's just rude. Posted by thisandthat1

How about the hairy beasts that work/serve/eat in restaurants with those sleeveless, collarless yucky shirts on?

[earthmom56]

I grew up loving to be outside playing and exploring and discovering; every day was a new adventure waiting to unfold. I raised three lovely children who were given the same opportunity and freedom, and they have become wonderful adults who still enjoy and appreciate nature and the outdoors. I am now a high school educator teaching art who finds it so rare to find a student who has truly taken the time to even begin to see and be aware of our natural world...the lack of imagination and familiarity is both saddening and disturbing. How can we raise generations of people whose knowledge and understanding of our earth is so limited that they cannot even begin to care about preserving and caring for it? I will be sure that my grandchildren (and all their friends!) have the places and opportunities to play outside!

[ubrew12]

"Richard Louv coined the fabulous phrase "nature-deficit disorder." "
Kids and their parents might want to take a look at what 30 years of supply-side economics has done to their local park. It's weedy, smelly, dangerous, and filled with graphiti. That's assuming its still there.

San Fransisco has a famous park, Union Square, in the middle of downtown. Once filled with trees, grass and park benches, Union Square is now, literally, paved over (but OH so tastefully), its benches resemble those of McDonalds: comfortable for maybe 15 minutes. And to listen to a recent concert there, I found myself hiding behind the central monument - the ONLY source of shade from the sun. Union Square veritably shouts 'no relaxing here, folks, continue your shopping'.

When my son was three we lived in student family housing on campus. This housing was called a 'park' because it WAS. You literally had to park on the ouskirts of the facility because there was only grass and walkways in around the buildings. For a three-year old, this was paradise, and he explored everything. A year later we moved into a normal American suburb. He would go outside and see a four-lane moat that prevented him from visiting the kid across the street. Just another way our love of the car hurts the development of our own children.

[tmkgls]

Ah - the good clean fun I had as a child. The trees were "homes" where we "visited" one another; the sandbox became a village with roads, houses, animals, etc; and the grove of trees contained "cavemen". Imagination was wonderful. It's so sad that today kids imagination doesn't seem to get beyond if they'll get past the next level on a video game.

[thisandthat1]

Oops....sorry. Strike the last paragraph. lol

[cbs_oliver]

It sometimes seems these days that only city kids and country get much of a chance to play outside on their own.

Some of the suburban kids don't even know what it means to "choose up sides" or "duke it out".

[thisandthat1]

Great article and exactly right! I had lots of brothers and sisters and we grew up in the country and my mother always told us to "Go outside" in the summer and I'm so glad she did. Great memories! We'd find a clump of trees or bushes and make a "fort" or make up some sort of game to use our imaginations. And, we were tired at the end of the day! Finally, I always think of my Grandfather and how, if he were still alive, he would be disappointed these days to see guys sit down in a diner or restaurant with a baseball cap on. It may be a small thing but it's a gesture of civility and respect that should be passed on. Thanks for the good article.

By the way, it still bothers me to see guys sit down in a restaurant and leave their baseball caps on. 'm not a young man but I'm also not a dinosaur, but even when I was younger it would bother me to see guys walk into a restaurant and sit down with a baseball cap on and not take it off! It's just rude.