because television, videogames, computers, phones and schools have no effect on their behavioral patterns whatsoever. Yup, it's the parents dictating 100% of their input and advertisements designed to manipulate children are benign.
Who buys them the TVs, games and phones?
Yeah the kids may end up being entitled asshats, but that's generally a case of being coddled and gifted everything as a kid.
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So at what age do you let kids out of the house unsupervised? My wife and I disagree on this one a little bit.
I think 7 is plenty old enough to go terrorize the neighbourhood, walk to school, and do whatever you feel like while the sun is shining.
She still wants to meet the parents beforehand, make sure they get on the bus every day, and make sure kids have supervision until 8 or 9.
Maybe it's just me but I remember doing whatever I felt like in grade 1.
Depends on the kids and the neighborhood I guess.
I remember the day before the first day of school in grade 1 or 2, my old man grabbed us kids and walked us to school to make sure we knew the route, he also pointed out houses with neighborhood watch signs. But I think that program died years ago.
But I guess I remember that there were hundreds of kids walking to school in groups, but now parents drive their kids two blocks which is goofy.
I guess if you can teach your kids the common rules, "Strangers don't talk to them, if they approach you run screaming, don't get in cars, if your pistol jams, reaction it to clear it, always check down on the 4-3 defense etc" you should be ok.
As far as the cellphones and internet and T.V., A friend of mine, got pissed off about the whole thing, and bought his kids locked cellphones with their home and work numbers and no texting etc because he feels that kids under the age of 15 don't need a damn data package. And they get an hour of T.V. a day at most, and they can only play x-box on the weekend, and Internet is for homework or supervised browsing.
But he also makes sure that his kids are signed up for a lot of activities so that they can get used to dealing with other kids and not have their nose in their cellphones or video games 10 hours a day.
I'm assuming part of this is the paranoia that every kid will be abducted/assaulted if they go anywhere on their own now. Are all neighborhoods that unsafe now?
I am that way about my kids, but they are 6 and under.
They have run of the cul-de-sac though, even if it involves them doing u-turns on their bike on a certain CP poster's front yard... (sorry about that!)
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try learning more about adolescent development and advertisements. Completely blaming the parents for what is clearly a societal issue is uninformed.
I definitely understand the effects of child advertising, societal pressure and the nag factor, but it doesn't change the fact that the parents are the ones making the choice to buy or not buy a product.
Example: I grew up with a very well off family. We had many privialges for which I am grateful. We had money for cars at 16, video games, and any convenience you can think, but were spoiled by none of that. My parents provided us with top-end sports gear (once we were old enough and playing high enough levels it was warrented, as we were growing it was hand-me-downs and used gear), awesome outdoor trips and things of that nature, but if we wanted specialty items like games or cars or phones or even junk food, we had to buy it ourselves. There were certainly times that I was jealous of the kids with Playstations and convertables at 16, but being older now and looking back I am so glad my parents didn't give in to that type of pressure to raise us in a more grounded way. They instilled working for our own success and earning things, along with an appreciation for physical activity/competition and living in the outdoors.
Now I can see many of the people I grew up around with the opposite scenario (much wealth and much spoiling) and how entitled and spoiled they have become. I firmly beleive if my parents had raised us in an environment like that, which they very well could have, I would be a different person today.
If you give in to your kids whining for a new toy all the time, then for the new video game, then for the new phone, then for the new car how do you think they will turn out? Whiners? Seems reasonable.
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My kids don't walk to school. They run. Both ways. They usually stay at least a half hour to play afterwards.
I actually managed to find a house where it will be uphill both ways to school, and there is always a blizzard just before and after school. I also plan on buying a horse wagon with square wheels and filling that full of rocks.
My dad did that....I did that, and damn straight my kid will do the same thing, as will his kids and grand kids.
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I actually managed to find a house where it will be uphill both ways to school, and there is always a blizzard just before and after school. I also plan on buying a horse wagon with square wheels and filling that full of rocks.
My dad did that....I did that, and damn straight my kid will do the same thing, as will his kids and grand kids.
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try learning more about adolescent development and advertisements. Completely blaming the parents for what is clearly a societal issue is uninformed.
Well you have 5 years as a parent you control 100% of what the kids sees. Don't want them exposed to advertising, don't turn on the TV. Don't want them exposed to video games don't let them use your phone or Ipad.
After that there friends will have an influence but if you insist on an hour of activity a day your kids will get an hour of physical activity a day. It might be a battle, it might be a fight, but you can make your kids do it.
Its actually easy once you have built in the habbit in your children. It is a fight and a struggle to change a learned behaviour but right now you have the whole summer to instill behaviours. Every parent if they wanted to now could go outside with their kids and do 1 hour of physical activity per day. It isn't society, it isn't video games, it is lazyness on the parents parts.
If parents aren't doing physical activity why should their kids. This one is the parents fault 100% can't blame society at all.
I always walked to school up until High School, but that was pretty far away. I'm always amazed by the people at work who take the elevator two floors for a meeting.
I'm sure there are a number of reasons for this. Overprotective parents and the media trying to scare everyone that their kids aren't safe walking themselves to school. It probably doesn't help that a lot of young families can't afford to buy houses in communities with school infrastructure, so they move to the edge of the city and bus their kids into the existing schools.
I agree that most of the responsibility falls on the parents. Even with all the technology today that can make kids sedentary, parents can work harder to keep them from spending so much time in front of a screen and more times outdoors or active.
The other thing is that parents need to be the ones to figure out what their kids like to do in terms of sports, and push to involve them in those activities. And most times, kids don't know they like soccer until they try it for a year.
I actually managed to find a house where it will be uphill both ways to school, and there is always a blizzard just before and after school. I also plan on buying a horse wagon with square wheels and filling that full of rocks.
My dad did that....I did that, and damn straight my kid will do the same thing, as will his kids and grand kids.
Are you trying to teach a lesson to your kids or to that poor horse?
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Why do parents all seem to be driving their kids to school these days? Why can't they walk? Does anyone here drive their kids to school?
It's largely a problem with a lot of neighbourhoods with young families not having schools, when there are schools in the community they're often capped (I know people who bought houses across the street from schools and still ended up having to send their kids to schools in other communities due to caps), or going to specialized programs, french immersion schools etc., so the schools often aren't in walking distance. The choice ends up being bus or driving.
try learning more about adolescent development and advertisements. Completely blaming the parents for what is clearly a societal issue is uninformed.
I'm going to go with the majority on this one. Of course advertisements are incredibly persuasive (the good ones always are), but to say they have more control than a parent is a little off imo. My kids see cool ads all the time and ask me to buy them x, y, or z. We tell them no and life goes on. Sometimes they get upset and annoying about it, but that's just kids figuring life out.
There isn't a demonic Don Draper hiding in the bushes forcing anybody to do anything. Advertisements attempt to offer an argument for why you should do something, but the decision ultimately falls down to the parent.
My wife talks to parents of teenagers several times a year who are "victims" of video games and tv and it's the same story nearly every single time. The parent talks about how there's just nothing that can be done, and the idea of taking away the games is actually frightening for them.
I play games as do all my friends. Our kids range from being able to play absolutely no games all the way to full blown sessions that make me jealous. The one constant? All kids are active and pretty awesome because the parents in my circle are active and pretty awesome. Regardless of how much time we let our kids partake in activities like that, there are defined boundaries and an expectation of respect coming our way.
I agree with you that as they age you have less and less direct influence over them. I would argue however a child that is well adjusted going into adolescence and understands things like boundaries and respect has a much better chance at being reasonable (well... as reasonable as a teenager can be).
