I really start to notice my age when I start making comments about the way children are raised today.
Kids seem to be so protected that I wouldn’t bat an eye if they started to be sent out the door swathed in bubble wrap.
When I was growing up we didn’t have social media to entertain, so we relied on our imaginations to play games and we rode our bikes until sunset. Parents sent their children out the door asking them to come in before before dark, and if we failed, there would often be the sound of a name being yelled out some door in the neighbourhood.
We didn’t have cell phones, so our parents had to trust our judgment that we would return when they asked; none of this constant texting back and forth.
We didn’t have Facebook, so parents got to know other parents personally, rather than looking through their own children’s FB account to check out their friends’ families.
Another thing is the competitive nature of birthday parties now. The parties that were thrown in my childhood years usually consisted of a few friends, some pizza, and a horror movie rented at Blockbuster. Today, parties thrown for teeny peoples’ birthdays seem to be one large competition between parents to show how current and hip they are, and they spare no expense. I know a young girl who recently turned 13, and her party seemed comparable to the Oscars, with sushi, appetizers, gluten-free desserts, and pomegranate sparkling water. Each friend was sent out the door with a goody bag filled with gift certificates, stickers, candles, and cosmetics. Instead of a rented movie, it was karaoke and Dance Dance Revolution (the latest version). The whole thing was mind-boggling to see, as the whole shindig was posted that evening, a dare to other parents to beat it.
I’m not saying that one way of child rearing is better; I know that ideas about raising kids are always changing. We have a fast-paced world to keep up with, and it’s always getting faster. I have a two-year-old cousin that—no joke—has just been enrolled in a computer coding class; he starts in the fall. Coding for toddlers. Wow.
I hope that parents can look back to their own childhoods and recognize what was valuable in them, and hopefully emulate that a bit. Childhood should be magical, and it should last as long as humanly possible.