Gone are the good ol' days...

You are right, I believe we were healthier in mind, body and spirit. My kids got lots of outside time. My grand kids do as well, though, because my daughter values them playing outdoors and using their bodies. I love it.

I am fortunate that my son has a boy next door who visits his grandparents almost every day. I love watching them outside playing with their toy swords and shields and running around like I used to..Yep, those were great days, and I wonder when the time will come when my son goes outside at night to play "ghost in the graveyard" LOL

I have seen these posts before over the years on Facebook and before that in actual emails. Yep! when I was a kid, I did watch TV and had an Atari, but I was more interested in being outside. I spent so many hours riding my bike and skateboard all over town, exploring different parts of the surrounding countryside, building cubby houses, playing football and cricket. The list goes on! There were no junk food places in town back then, the nearest McDonalds was a 20 minute drive away, so we never had that! I had never heard of KFC, let alone all the rest of the fast food chains that are around now! We ate at home or had picnics in the park. Yes a simple ball and maybe a piece of chalk was all that was needed and we could create all manner games. Life was simple, but so much fun!

Yeah this is really true. What we, as a kid before enjoy was playing games outdoor. We really had a great time way back then. Playing hide and seek with our friends at the backyard of our house. It was so much fun. We we get home, we are wet with sweet and we just washed. Life before was very small.

Masihi - canada madam_ how are you ! I agree with the observations made herein totally. Present day not only children but also adults spend a lot of time before computers, tv and video games. this should be discouraged. I am happy to know ur children play out door games. Please allow them to mix with neighbours' children. We must also teach them about sharing things, happiness with others. Team spirit has to be taught nowadays. that will help them in their life later on.good discussion indeed. We can write an article on this.

Yes there is a great difference between the time when I was a child to the current time,I remember we had a BIG TV, now is super thing,and you can just watch to channels at the same time, besides you can go online, buy products,watch shows since the beginning when it is almost done,wow! is very different now, we had to take turns to watch TV because we only had one, now there are more TV than rooms! lol! when I was a child we played with the dolls, now the dolls play with us! lol, yes! now the doll talk, cry,walk,dance,sing,ask for food, ask for hugs and kisses,I remember I used to do that while playing, now the doll doesn't give us the opportunity, the boys used to play with a bat and a baseball, which cost maybe 2 dollars, now they ask for video games $300 dollars which we have to keep buying more and more because after a month or less they get tired of the game and one another which cost at least $30 dollar each.Now the life is more about technology but before was more real.

That is so true. Children now got their own expensive gadgets like PSP, laptops, iphone, ipod touch and even ipads. Our nephew and niece got these, and they hardly have the chance for a physical play. However, for our children we opted for a different approach. We enrolled them to a Waldorf school and part of the practice and philosophy of the school is to eliminate media and computers from children. They are encourage to play and show more creativeness. So my children do not watch TV, do not play computer games, we do not have PSP or ipod and ipad. I have noticed from the time they stopped watching TV they were more creative with their games. sometimes they would invent a game of their own, or they are more active. They are very interested with story telling, story reading, and they can even come up with their own stories to tell. The school also encourages us to eat more healthy. So goodbye to hotdogs and other junk foods that we used to eat before. They bring lunch and snacks at school, and they would have veggies, fish, chicken. Sometimes we would have pork and beef but not a lot compared then. They would bring fruits, and healthy sandwiches in school and they also drink tea during their recess. Of course they do have sweet day too, but chocolates are no no in school. We tried to lessen that as well, so if we got chocs at home it is definitely a treat for all of us.

You know Masihi, I can certainly relate. Though I don't remember good food though, ahaha! I do think sometimes that way too many kids are simply left on their own today and that sit in front of the PC and or TV is absolutely non-healthy. Sad some kids today don't even learn to cook and or do their own laundry as the many did before. We actually thought back in the day that latch key kids was a bad thing. Hmm, hindsight they actually learned a great deal of responsibility. I wonder what some kids today will say 25 years from now?

Yeah this is really true. What we, as a kid before enjoy was playing games outdoor. We really had a great time way back then. Playing hide and seek with our friends at the backyard of our house. It was so much fun. We we get home, we are wet with sweet and we just washed. Life before was very small.

Yes, gone are the good old days. It is overwhelming what the very modern times with all these technologies do our generation and the generations to come. And it is sad because it has become a trend that we can't do anything about. Our children will always see other spoiled children an they will want to be the same and they'd be upset if we don't let them. I think we should just have to keep reminding them the real beauty of life even without these gadgets. A lot more of these gadgets will be coming and our children might not even want to talk to us in the near future and it does sound so scary when they appreciate the things these things can do to them.