Growing Up, Then and Now

My kids wanted to know what it was like for me growing up. So I took their phones, shut off the internet, gave them a popcicle, told them to go outside till the street lights came on.

Growing up then, and now is a lot different. When I was a kid, there were a whole lot of things I did while growing up, that kids these days, do not even know about. 

Still, kids these days know a lot of things that I could only dream of, or perhaps not even dream of.

 Even as a kid, there’s a huge difference between growing up in the 60s, in the 80s in the 90s, and growing up in this age.

Kids of this generation have a whole lot going for them. Why, in my days, growing up, going outside to play your mother’s biggest problem was you going outside with the wrong crowd, or getting injured. 

A lot of parents wanted to keep their kids inside the house because they didn’t want them to play so much. Unfortunately, the revise is the case these days. These days, kids do not want to go outside. In fact, it will be a thing of joy, if your kids would put down any one of their gadgets and go outdoors to play.

 They end up playing games on their phones on their tablet, or the game console. This is not to say that kids of this generation have it worse than the kids of my generation. It is just a difference in growing up, and in technology. Every generation has something that is unique to them 

 I remember one time my kids who are, ranging from 6 to 15 years old, once asked me what it was like growing up, and instead of giving them a talk on how we used to play outdoors, went to the lake to play with imaginary friends, and did all sorts of silly things outdoors because, in those days, we were not as opportune to have the technology, I simply took all their smart devices. I took their phones, their tablets, I turned off their computers and bundled them against the coold.

I sent them outdoors, handed popsicles to each of them, and told them to sit outside till the street light came on.

 It was funny, but I needed them to understand exactly how much we had to make up our own games, how much we had to make up our own excitement in the absence of technology. It saddens me to see parents rely so heavily on technology to entertain their kids. What you get from such a situation are kids who are disconnected from their parents who are more connected to strangers over the internet and their own parents. I understand that parents need to make money. And it’s different with this generation, as both parents are involved in the making money process. Still, the whole idea of allowing your kids to be entertained by technology is a bit iffy, if I may say so. 

Your kids live their lives to please strangers a social media platform, they want to get on what is trending. Some of these things that are trending at not what you want them to have a core value. 

Now, what happened to my kids after I set them outside. At first, they were bored. But they knew the rules. No technology. No going into the house. And if you’re going to play with a friend. It had to be outdoors.

Soon, they were playing in the street with their friends.