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Where have all the children gone ?


spud the mackem

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You never see any kids out playing after school these days.Years ago there would be about 30 of us playing in the back street or in the park after school.Are the kids all TV/Computer geeks nowadays ?,or have they too much homework.Are we bringing up a nation of kids playing indoors on X-boxes,etc, which isn't a good way to grow up naturally and keep fit.I guess gone are the days of adventure.

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Kids go to organized events (T-ball, dance class, piano lessons, karate) then they come home and play video games and chat with their friends on facebook. The world has changed. I'm not so sure this lack face to face socialization time is such a good thing though.

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When I was a kid I couldn't wait to get home from school so I could go out and play. Ball, swings, skipping rope, roller skates, anything really and the more of us there were, the better, girls and boys together. It was fun back then and if it was too wet to be outside I was bored in the house.

Sometimes around here there'll be one or two on skateboards, the same one or two, a local boy and girl. Also maybe a few on bikes will go past. I have seen more kids around the night before school holidays finish, that seems to bring them out more, their last day of freedom! Other than that they're all glued to computers and games consoles I think.

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It also depends on where you're looking. The neighborhood I grew up in, almost everyone had kids. Now, the kids have all grown and left and its mostly older people. The one I live in now has some kids. In the past year, the old people across the street moved out, young parents with kids moved in....

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I still see a lot of kids on the playgrounds or football grounds. But Berlin is a major city with a lot of public playgrounds and parks, while other cities do not have enough of them, or they are simply too far away for many. It's an issue that needs to be solved.

How is that in your city?

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As a 14 year old kid I can tell you most kids prefer to hang outside. FB and text are just messages on where to meet up or having converstations with others as your hanging out where someone else.

People always prefer face to face interaction over typing and phones.

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My daughter goes to the girls brigade and recently attending karate lessons.. From that she is looking to take up dance and join the school choir...She can't sing a note, but she still wants to join ... If she joins the choir and dance lessons.. she will STILL find time for angry birds !!!

Edited by Beckys_Mom
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As a 14 year old kid I can tell you most kids prefer to hang outside. FB and text are just messages on where to meet up or having converstations with others as your hanging out where someone else.

People always prefer face to face interaction over typing and phones.

Hi Kazoo, I was 14 once !,but when you "hang" out with your mates do you sit in cafe's or stand around on street corners or have competitons,like bike races,skate/roller blade races or such,and keep yourselves fit,or just slouch about.Just asking as we used to keep fit,which is probably very good for you as you grow up.Cheers.(p.s I left school when I was 15, and went into the Brit Merchant Navy.) .
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Where have all the kids gone? Well... Don't check my white panel van, kay? ;D

Anyway, me and my friends still find it awkward to only 'hang out' or talk through just text messages or messengers online. It's one reason I don't use social networking, even my aversion to people doesn't make me a complete recluse. I prefer hearing my friends voices, seeing their expressions, knowing they're with me.

Nowadays, I feel that kids are missing out on being able to get scrapped knees with their friends, rough house, and get coated in poison ivy. -shudders- Okay, maybe not that last part...

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My daughter goes to the girls brigade and recently attending karate lessons.. From that she is looking to take up dance and join the school choir...She can't sing a note, but she still wants to join ... If she joins the choir and dance lessons.. she will STILL find time for angry birds !!!

I'm almost afraid to ask... What is a "girls brigade"?... I think my mental image of "Brigade" and what this probably is are two vastly different things!

What do kids do here in OKC? Most I see split their time between xbox and local sports leagues... I have no kids of my own but my brother and sisters kids all played multiple sports - at the same time - leaving my siblings with little time of their own as they were always taking them to practice/games and/or coaching... We also have a lot of 4-H club activity - raising/riding horses is a big favorite around here...

I do know though that a lot of kids spend almost all of their free time plunked down in front of a game console or TV - cheap babysetters for their parents I'm thinking...

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We live around the corner from a boys and girls club (rec center) with a big playground, so a lot of the older kids go straight there after school for swimming and other various activities or just to hang out with their friends.

My son is too young to go there alone but he has a few friends that usually come over after school. They'll play on the swings, tag or zombie games outside for a while but it isn't long before they are asking to come in and play on the Wii. :rolleyes:

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I'm almost afraid to ask... What is a "girls brigade"?... I think my mental image of "Brigade" and what this probably is are two vastly different things!

They belong to their local church... The correct title ( the one my daughter belongs to ) is - Seagoe Church Girls Brigade ...kind of like the brownies or girl scouts, only with a religious theme to it Becky's dad was once in the Seagoe boy's brigade ... They play games, listen to a bible story, paint things and mess about .... She goes to that on a Monday evening, right after karate lessons, which is twice a week.

I formed my own club..it was the - House Cleaning Brigade...................Becky of course was not interested in becoming a member... But see, she will be a member lol

Edited by Beckys_Mom
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Hi Kazoo, I was 14 once !,but when you "hang" out with your mates do you sit in cafe's or stand around on street corners or have competitons,like bike races,skate/roller blade races or such,and keep yourselves fit,or just slouch about.Just asking as we used to keep fit,which is probably very good for you as you grow up.Cheers.(p.s I left school when I was 15, and went into the Brit Merchant Navy.) .

No one in this neighborhood owns a skateboard. or rollerblade. Or anything with wheels frankly. My town is much more sports centered. Basketball courts and football(american) and things of that nature.

But yes they do sit around sometimes. But I'm sure you did too.

All older generations look down on the newer generations way of doing things. My great grandma still thinks my grandma's generation was spoiled. Its just something that happens.

Edited by Kazoo
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Everything for kids (around here anyway) is WAY too organized and scheduled. Kids don't go outside and meet up with their friends, they have play dates. They attend soccer and baseball clubs instead of just kicking a ball around in a backyard. They take dance, gymnastic lessons instead of putting on music with their girlfriends and singing into hair brushes in the basement. There is no time for them to figure out what to do on their own, which turns kids into "I'm boooorrreeeeddd" monsters, in my opinion.

My neighbor's 8 yr old daughter takes piano, ballet, gymnastics, art classes, and cheerleading of all things after school for up to 3 hour each day. I think it's absolutely awful. I've watched her a few times when my neighbor had to go out. The little girl has NO clue what to do with herself. She can't entertain herself at all.

The rest of the time they are plugged in to some electronic contraption: TV, laptop, phone, video game, etc.

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No one in this neighborhood owns a skateboard. or rollerblade. Or anything with wheels frankly. My town is much more sports centered. Basketball courts and football(american) and things of that nature.

But yes they do sit around sometimes. But I'm sure you did too.

All older generations look down on the newer generations way of doing things. My great grandma still thinks my grandma's generation was spoiled. Its just something that happens.

Hi again Kazoo, In the age of dinosaurs (when I was a Lad), we didnt have T.V's,cell phones any electonic games, so indoors you either listened to a radio or read a book, our small village didn't have any football/basketball courts, so we spent a lot of time beachcombing,or cave exploring,or climbing 100 ft cliffs,apart from Brit football,roller skates,etc..we used to light fires on the beach and have cook-ups with any shellfish you scavenged from rockpools, I'm talking about when I was about 10/12 yrs old,pinch a few potatoes from the local fields and roast them, magic days.... we didnt have time to sit around a lot as you were ordered to bed at 8 pm.........cheers
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I live along a busy road, there are no kids knocking around where I live..It would be dangerous if they did...... I get peace when Becky is off on her play dates and it tires her out... Her school would send notes home about certain clubs ..( dance, singing and sports ) Becky nags to go saying so many her age are going... Most of all she loves to get off to the junior discos lol...

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Hi again Kazoo, In the age of dinosaurs (when I was a Lad), we didnt have T.V's,cell phones any electonic games, so indoors you either listened to a radio or read a book, our small village didn't have any football/basketball courts, so we spent a lot of time beachcombing,or cave exploring,or climbing 100 ft cliffs,apart from Brit football,roller skates,etc..we used to light fires on the beach and have cook-ups with any shellfish you scavenged from rockpools, I'm talking about when I was about 10/12 yrs old,pinch a few potatoes from the local fields and roast them, magic days.... we didnt have time to sit around a lot as you were ordered to bed at 8 pm.........cheers

In my day, we had the computer games ( Atari and pacman etc) and we loved the TV ( The A Team, Air Wolf and Muppets )..BUT we still went outside a lot...

Favourite past time was building a fort ..Also loved to build go-karts ... I made one out of an old dolls pram ..Well it was not that old at the time, I had it for a week and it was turned into a go-kart ...I loved it

We would invent our own games outside... I remember back then I hated being called in for supper and bed...If I was called in for a bath ..I would have ran up the fields like the clappers, this was brave and often..and I was as fit as a fiddle !!

I also went to a youth club and the junior discos ... Roller discos were the best

Edited by Beckys_Mom
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I've thoght about this, too. I almost never see a kid anywhere. The town I live in is 16,000 pop. It's the same old story with me, when I was young all the kids in the neighborhood were outside playing most of the time. In the summer or on weekends there was always a kid-organized baseball game going on somplace, etc. etc.

Reminds me (if you'll indulge me) of a movie crew in 1947 filming a scene on a street in NYC. People were outside everywhere, sitting on stoops talking, teens hanging out on the street corners, kids playing on the sidewalk, men having conversations here and there. The street was full of life.

Then, in 1953 the same film crew wanted to make a similar movie scene. When they went back to the same street it was empty. They visited other neighborhoods, the same thing. No people anywhere. Had NYC been evacuated? The director scratched his head in bewilderment. Where had all the people gone? Then he had the answer: televistion.

I watched tv as a kid, but when I went outside there was always other kids out there to play with.

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I dunno, I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in... when I was a kid, there were roving packs of children roaming the street from yard to yard, jackin' up the traffic in the streets with bikes and roller skates with everyone screaming "Car! Car is coming!" LOL. I don't see kids in my neighborhood anymore I know they exist, but they don't go outside around their homes. There hasn't been that much change in crime, traffic, or anythnig around here, it's mostly the same as it was 40 years ago... Still, no kids outside. In fact, my neighbors who live behind me, whose driveway is an easement on my property, have two kids... I bet I can count on 2 hands how many times I've seen them in 10 years. Probably 8 times. I'd have to guess they're in high school now. Maybe even graduated... not sure, I don't even know their names. In fact, I used to know just about everyone in every house for at bare minimum a 10 block radius ... now, I know virtually none of my neighbors. They arne't nice, they aren't neighborly, they keep to themselves, and apparently never go outside either and their children appear to be hugely sheltered. I hate the burbs to be honest. LOL

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That's what I don't like nowadays not knowing my neighbors name when I was a kid the neighborhood was more like extended family. Try to do a blockparty or something nowadays everybody acts like you sudden grown two heads. The only time I see kids nowadays is at the store.... usually crying or causing havoc.

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80's and 90's kids experienced the magic years before the descend into chaos and I'm glad i was raised in these times and have a "before" to relate to in childhood before this techno onslaught and paranoia of society. I'm serious when i say you only have to look to the 80's and 90's movies and music for the inspiration and magic that was alive then. The energy and potential known to us as 80's/90's children was amazing. I'm pretty sure it's been imprinted to us for a good reason yet to be known ;)

Edited by bLu3 de 3n3rgy
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The world we live in is different today than 20 or 40 or more years ago: Nowadays, children are kept inside out of fear they may get hit by cars or get frostbite or heatstroke wherever they live in a climate deemed too dangerous to be out. Other reasons you don't really see children out in streets is fears of a perverse stranger picks them up in the playground and the risk of illegal drug use or street gang activity lures them into criminal behaviors (nighttime curfews with the parents keeping the kids out of the front yards starting at sundown). We can't teach children to fear the world, teach them social skills and survival abilities, and signing them in afterschool activities sound like a good idea, but they teach children to have quite busy(!) schedules we associate with working professional adults. :-P

Edited by Quake Storm Maverick 66er
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The world we live in is different today than 20 or 40 or more years ago: Nowadays, children are kept inside out of fear they may get hit by cars or get frostbite or heatstroke wherever they live in a climate deemed too dangerous to be out, other reasons you don't really see children out in streets is fears of a perverse stranger picks them up in the playground and the risk of illegal drug use or street gang activity lures them into criminal behaviors (nighttime curfews with the parents keeping the kids out of the front yards starting at sundown). We can't teach children to fear the world, teach them social skills and survival abilities, and signing them in afterschool activities sound like a good idea, but they teach children to have quite busy(!) schedules we associate with working professional adults. :-P

The last 10/12 years. I would put this mark at the 10/12 years ago mark. Or 2000 if you want an exact numerical point. There is a before and after of 2000. The 90's is the 90's gotta love the 90's.

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You've got to wonder what went wrong for Sponge-bob Square pants to be the best Kid's show?

I grew up with the Groovy 70's shows, BBC's origional Tomorrow people, Doctor who's, H.R Puffinstuff.

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One more think that just crossed my mind. Where are the adults? I rarely see any adults outside either.

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