You don’t see kids doing anymore

[Jazzy]

What is a summer activity you just don’t see kids doing anymore?

 

[zecryphon_nomdiv]

Playing Cowboys and Indians. Playing Army.
Shooting each other with you guns.

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[Jazzy]

Not just pertaining to summertime, but kids aren't being kids and playing outside anymore. I find it really sad, to be honest. Kids don't play out in nature with sticks in the dirt. Kids don't play in the rain or even do things like draw with chalk. They're on technology, playing video games. What happened to kids playing outside? What happened to kids creating things out in nature? Snowmen? What happened to kids being kids?

 

[zecryphon_nomdiv]

Not just pertaining to summertime, but kids aren't being kids and playing outside anymore. I find it really sad, to be honest. Kids don't play out in nature with sticks in the dirt. Kids don't play in the rain or even do things like draw with chalk. They're on technology, playing video games. What happened to kids playing outside? What happened to kids creating things out in nature? Snowmen? What happened to kids being kids?

Over-protective parents happened.

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[Albion]

With or without guns, I almost never see neighborhood kids playing together. No tag, no hide and seek, not even playing lawn games or bike-riding. Everything is either done online or it's a supervised activity like Little League sports, etc.

 

[tango]

With or without guns, I almost never see neighborhood kids playing together. No tag, no hide and seek, not even playing lawn games or bike-riding. Everything is either done online or it's a supervised activity like Little League sports, etc.

I guess it depends on the area.

Where I used to live, in a suburban setting, the local kids would play together. Now I live in a more rural area and only yesterday I was out for a walk and saw a couple of kids playing. One of them, I guess aged around 5, was very keen to tell us there was a dead bird in the road (there was, although there have been a load of dead birds in the roads lately) and that they were going to the park. Other kids walk by the house to see friends.

Sadly a lot of stuff is highly structured and supervised but at least some of the local kids here play with each other. Part of what we try and do with the youth groups at church is to get the kids to just be kids and play, without technology and without a whole lot of structure.

 

[tango]

What happened to kids being kids?

I think the whole "stranger danger" got blown out of proportion (from what I gather kids are far more likely to be abused by people they know than by strangers, even though very occasionally we do see horrific crimes where kids are abducted and never seen again).

Throw in an increasing sense that CPS will get involved at the drop of a hat over an allegation of "child abandonment" and it ends up being far from clear just what counts as "abandonment". I was allowed to walk the mile or so to the local park on my own before I was 10. Only recently a friend of mine had a fight with his ex-wife over his thoughts that his kids (15 and 13) could walk the whopping quarter mile to catch the school bus without him walking with them. She thought it was too dangerous, although her basis for her apparent belief was far from clear.

Since the last thing most people need is CPS snooping around trying to justify their existence it's easier to just watch your kids like a hawk the whole time. Sadly, as with so much else that's notionally about child protection, the kids are the ones who pay the price.

 

[Albion]

I guess it depends on the area.

Where I used to live, in a suburban setting, the local kids would play together. Now I live in a more rural area and only yesterday I was out for a walk and saw a couple of kids playing.

It may be just as you have explained. I have lived in the city and also in the suburbs, but not in a rural area.

Therefore, I feel confident about what I reported with regards to the first two (although I suppose different cities might be different), but it could be that there are reasons why kids who live in the country play together.

For one thing, they probably are more accustomed to being outside and, also, their parents may have less fear of traffic and unknown people hanging around in the neighborhood.

 

[tango]

It may be just as you have explained. I have lived in the city and also in the suburbs, but not in a rural area.

Therefore, I feel confident about what I reported with regards to the first two (although I suppose different cities might be different), but it could be that there are reasons why kids who live in the country play together.

For one thing, they probably are more accustomed to being outside and, also, their parents may have less fear of traffic and unknown people hanging around in the neighborhood.

It's probably down to the general neighborhood. Where I lived in the city was a street where a load of people knew each other so the kids knew each other and parents knew who was who and what was what.

In more rural areas it's more noticeable if strangers are in the area. In the city I didn't bat an eyelid if someone walked past my house but out in the country I notice, simply because most people drive. I guess with a slower pace of life it's also more likely that people will know the neighbors, and thereby know the neighbors' kids and so on.

Where I lived for a time in an apartment block closer to the city there were 12 apartments in the block and I only knew two of the other residents. The others were people I could pass in the hallway and not know who they were.