is childhood a thing of the past?
By cher913
@cher913 (25781)
Canada
July 3, 2008 12:00pm CST
the post that was posted earlier about a 5 year old having to watch her weight made me think and wonder if just the simple pleasures of being a kid is a thing of the past?
remember the lazy summer days that you spent as a kid? now kids are at summer school, enrichment camps, academic camps, soccer school and whatnot
they are worrying about making the grade, being fat, low self esteem...are kids ever just kids anymore?
4 responses
@Mainframeguy (200)
•
4 Jul 08
Yeah - my daughter is. It is down to the parents to give them the childhood they deserve. I never encourage mine to grown up - in fact I probably act childish with her rather!
@teison2 (5921)
• Norway
3 Jul 08
It is getting to be far too much. Kids cannot live on a tight schedule all the time. Kids need some quiet time, some no program time, some use your imagination time. Withe everything being so organized and scheduled we are depriving kids of their childhood. making a 5 year old worry about her weight is horrid. A five year old should feel she or he is enough just by being themselves.
@Sillychick (3275)
• United States
3 Jul 08
It is sad, really, that people just don't allow their kids to be kids anymore. They are competitive, and push kids to achieve at such a young age. They also want to take away things like leaving cookies for Santa (or believing in Santa at all) and the Cookie Monster because of obesity. Yet these same parents who complain about these negative influences are picking up dinner at a drive thru. How can they blame Santa or the Cookie Monster for obesity? My son has never had fast food. He eats lots of fruits and veggies every day and actually prefers them to cookies. That is not because of the media- it's because it's what I feed him and teach him. Just like obesity is not because of the media- it's because of what parents feed their kids and teach them. Sorry, I went a little off topic there.
Anyway, I intend to allow my son to experience all the joys of childhood and not push him to grow up too fast. I will not sign him up for 15 after school and summer activities. I will let him lay on the grass and look up at the clouds. I don't sterilize his environment or keep him indooors because he might get hurt. I let him explore and learn the same way I did when I was a kid- the way it's supposed to be.
