Random Odd Thought of the Morning

[teddog]

Today I've heard people harping on how bad it is to overstimulate a child's brain. Apparently, it leads to short attention spans and problems at school and home.

But, at the small time, we whine and complain that our kids today are too passive, lazy and killing themselves in the process.

Anyone else greatly confused? I know I have parents, childless and childfree on my friends list. Any opinions and stories on this would be interesting.

As for mine? I'm willing to bet that I was greatly overstimulated as a child, yet it wasn't a problem. I ate the same sugary cereals and candy as kids today, probably even worse. Heck, the highlight of going to the States for me is buying Fruity Pebbles and illegal-in-Canada poptarts, since they don't sell those up north anymore. And come on, we all watched cartoons that tried to skirt around broadcast guidelines by slapping some cheap moral at the end. Shows like the A-Team were family viewing! The end result is the product of the cultural glut of the 1980s and 1990s, when the quality of media and culture apparently sucked (although, I beg to differ). And yet, I turned out mostly fine. Weight aside, I'm perfectly healthy. Yes, I'm still a bit of a spaz, but that's me.

I was a bouncey spazball and got out of control a lot as a child. My mother used to kick me outside to play and forbid me to come in until the streetlights came on. At school, I was a bit of a problem child because I got my work done fast and distracted the other students. That was changed by giving me extra credit work to slow me down.

To be honest, I'm not sure if either of these are a common practice today. I don't think my younger brothers get out a lot during the winter, although the summer is a bit of a mystery to me. They do seem to have a lot more homework than I remember having. Food might be a tiny bit different, but the only story I can recall is seeing a 10 year old carrying a large Starbucks cup at work. Then again, I don't know if that was hot chocolate, coffee, tea or anything decaf.

So... what's really wrong with kids today? Is there anything wrong at all? I'm interested to know what you think.

Comments

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

I think kids today are basically the same as kids in every other generation-- I just think folks spend too much time analyzing them. Yes, kids have short attention spans because of video games now-- but when I was growing up, tv was the culprit.

And wasn't there always a handful of troublemakers in the class? In the old days, they got extra work...now I think maybe they get medicated. But who knows.

I think there might be one difference, though-- I used to get tossed out of the house in the summer for "fresh air" too and I'd come back as it got dark. I wonder if parents are more protective of their kids these days? My parents had no idea where my friends and I went between noon and 7pm in the summers, and yet I always came back suntanned, scraped up, and otherwise safe.

Having said all that...I don't want kids. I'll stick with my dog and cats, thank ye very much. ;)

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt there's a huge difference in the perception of violence, probably from the massive change in communcations. If a kid goes missing now, everyone knows through the Amber Alerts. It's like the idea that desentization leads to over sentization; you're exposed to it, so it's a threat that might happen at any time. It doesn't surprise me that parents are so protective now.

On a related note, I used to go out and get scraped up all the time. This was fine except that once, back when I was in Kindergarten, I fell off my bike and got hurt really bad. The teacher got worried that I was getting physically abused at home. Riiight. I know some neighbor called Childern's Aid on my mom about six years ago because she believed that my mother was letting my brothers run wild and letting them yell and shout and do the silly things boys do. Maybe parents are scared to let their kids be kids now, because someone will take it the wrong way.

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

Lack of parenting is one problem. Parents want their children to be baby-sitted by the TV or computer or gaming system, then complain because the children don't want to go out and play and have oodles of energy to burn off.

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

I never understood the idea of "TV as the babysitter" or how it managed to get to that position; other than a few token shows, most of it is filler and I used to get bored of it rather quickly. Yeah, I like my cartoons, but you can only watch so much.

Both of us were of the "play outside" camp, with would have been our babysitter, or lack thereof. It could be that many parents are overprotective now and in lieu of exploring the outdoors, the electronics have taken a bigger role.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's somthing seriusly wrong with kids these days. I mean, one of the oldest writtings deals is a rant how kids these days are little monsters and when he was that age his generation respected their elders!

Though there are some things that could be changed, there's always something that people look back on and wonder what everyone was thinking, letting kids do that. Like when everyone brought their familes to see a hanging?

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

I want to see Adam's ranting on Cain. It's probably a laugh a minute. :D

I don't have an issue with today's kids more than the adults and what they expect out of the kids. We're trying to keep this awkward balance of everything safe and secure and yet active and outgoing. THEN we complain if it's too much of one side or the other. Gaaaah.

The work around I've heard of many people using is tossing their kids into structured programs. While sports are fun and all, it's not the same as tossing a kid outside to play. I know I used to HATE softball from time to time. It was fun, given if the coaches weren't running it like boot camp, but there were cool hiking trails around the diamonds that looked even better.