Let Them Out or Keep Them Quiet?
I have just read on a parenting support group that someone was thinking about getting an Ipod touch for their 4 year old.
What?!!!!!!
And get this, someone else said it’s great because it keeps them QUIET!
What?!!!!!!
What the heck is going on? Keep them quiet! Are we going back to the Victorian era where kids should be seen and not heard.
I know kids can be hard going ,believe me, I’ve got twins, one of whom would test the patience of a saint. I’m hoping that all the shoving and pushing against every boundary that’s put in place is all in aid of some greater plan, because it sure is hard work to parent.
I know the allure of the electronic babysitter and I’ve used it too but I think something is going wrong when we need to plug our kids in to keep them quiet.
Why is that? What is going on that we need to do this?
Ok I’m getting hyped up, I am, I know I am, but something has to be done about all this.
We are in a changing world, technology is an important part of it and will continue to be so, but we need to learn to use it wisely, not as some parenting panacea.
How do we think parents managed in days of old.?
My Mum she says she used to love it when we were all out playing in the fields or off exploring somewhere, she got a break, had peace and could quietly get on with things.
Now we coddle our kids at home, we don’t let them roam, explore, and God forbid build fires. We think some awful fate will befall them.
Outdoor Nation’s states that:
“The statistics reveal that things have changed dramatically in just one generation:
- Fewer than ten per cent of kids play in wild places; down from 50 per cent a generation ago
- The roaming radius for kids has declined by 90 per cent in one generation (thirty years)
- Three times as many children are taken to hospital each year after falling out of bed, as from falling out of trees
- A 2008 study showed that half of all kids had been stopped from climbing trees, 20 per cent had been banned from playing conkers or games of tag”
Could this fear mongering be part of a huge conspiracy to keep them at home where you WILL NEED a break so you WILL PLUG them in……I hope not.
More likely it’s another negative symptom of mass media, we know too much, are exposed to too much, raising fear and anxiety to the point that we can barely let them in the garden alone, far less off on some great adventure.
They’re too young I hear you cry. Was my sister too young? Six years below me was it wrong for her to be part of our wild, fantasy filled games, playing in the local fields or away along the old railway track?
Yes I sometimes resented having to look after her, and I did, I admit, once tie her to a tree, and leave her……oh God I can’t believe I’m telling you this. Anyhow I did, but mostly she tagged along growing and learning as we all had before her.
Where are these opportunities now?
Even in the play park I watch the helicopter parents hover around their off-spring like benign body-guards, ready to step in at a moments notice, or worse still “encouraging” little Johnny around telling him what to do and when.
Leave them alone!
Let them explore, let them work it out themselves, and yes let them have the odd fall, it might hurt a little, probably more you than them, but they will grow and expand far more out of our shadow, and we will not be having to keep them quiet!
How can we learn to let our children roam again?
How can we even get them to want to?
4 Responses to “Let Them Out or Keep Them Quiet?”
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- Why we need a break? | Mairi Stones - [...] from fear of letting them go outside, which I’ve written about here, I think we’ve lost our communities, our ...
MairiStones
Nodding all the way in total agreement to this one…how can they express themselves if they have forgotten to play ? It is a fine line sometimes between freedom and safety but how else can we all learn. Good article Mairi
Thanks Liz, so true what you say, play, gateway to the imagination and self-expression. Just spoke to a teacher of 6 th years who think s that her kids don’t know how to think for themselves any more, shocking. Maybe they would be better of out in the woods too!
Anyway nice to know I’m not alone in my musings. M X
Fantastic Mairi, I really agree with you and am so sad when I see parents stifling their little kids at the playground. We’ve had a bit of this when meeting new families at school. We often go to the platground across the road after school and even other kids have told mine: ‘Your’re not allowed to climb trees,’ and ‘you shouldn’t play with sticks.’
But we do play with sticks and climb trees … and I let mine wander into the thickets whilst no-one else does.
Am SO glad to bought this house at the bottom of a cul de sac. I really get a buzz out of not knowing exactly where they are, but being confident they are fine.
Having said all that, I left three kids downstairs watching TV and came up to bed with the laptop this morning. It hasn’t worked well as J is here now telling me he’s locked I and D in the garage.
Hurrah hurrah Seana, kids out and running free, so important. Best go and unlock I & D, amazing he told you! X