Childhood 'poisoned' by modern life

[Enid]

junk food and no exercise is 'poisoning' childhood

Surely all these depressed/obese kids are an urban myth?

My take on it is that there have always been fat kids and stupid people, whats new?

Are the people that signed this letter living in a bubble of nostalgia?

god you lot are snobs

DS (5) knows about playstations (DH has one and they occasionally play golf on it together [yawn]) but certainly doesn't know about CITV. And would whinge about the adverts. And complain if a "girly" advert (ie barbie, bratz, my little pony, whatever) came on. He has a rather inflated ego and thinks that all adverts should be aimed directly at him.

Mine love the adverts and I've found when I'm out shopping with them they will splurt out some of the slogans (e.g. they always mention about getting dirty and the Persil ad) whereas (as an adult) I have stopped noticing most ads.

I've had to sit down and explain to them that adverts mainly exist to sell us something and if someone wanted to sell them something they wouldn't point out all the bad points, they would only emphasise the good.

I actually think it's quite important that children understand this from a fairly early age - adverts are all over the place - not only on TV - bus stops, tubes, lorries, newspapers.

Yes, there have always been stupid people, but as Hallgerda says it is far easier now to be stupid and lazy than it was 20 years ago.

There are definitely more obese children around these days. It used to be 1 or 2 per school and now it's 1 or 2 per class.

dd is only 2.2 and has no clue that there is a world outside CBeebies tv wise. I probably let her watch it far more than I should though. She has no idea about the existance of playstations. She loves running round outside and creative play, she doesn't need encouragement to do any of these things. I appreciate that many kids aren't like that, but surely with enough encouragement from an early age it will seem normal?????

Cheeseyfeet I think that "seeming normal" is a key point actually.

Absolutely bozza and cheesyfeet, and also hallgerda. With all the channels and home IT on offer it is much easier to slump in front of the screen these days. More people have and use cars.
I like computers, including games. I like cars. I like crap food sometimes. I like watching TV. But they are all seductively sloth-inducing, especially in an urban environment and I honestly think you have to make an active decision to minimise their presence in your children's lives.

Excellent point Marina. I agree wholeheartedly with that. We've just got rid of our TV for a trial period because I felt I was wasting too many nights doing nothing in front of it. People will say they don't watch much TV or are self-disciplined about what they watch but when you're tired, it's just too easy to slump in front of the TV.

It's like the defualt option is now to pick up convenience food, turn on a screen, get into the car and you have to make a conscious effort to do the opposite, even when you know it is the better option.

I knew someone would have started a thread on this. I agree with a lot of what is in the letter. I have no idea what the solution is. And, yes, as others have said - there have always been "fat kids and stupid people" (lol, Enid) but the number of obese children at my children's school is shocking. There are at least two children in ds2's reception class who are (to my eyes anyway) obese. And I couldn't agree more about education - it is so restrictive, and so results and league table led. I can remember a fabulous primary school teacher of mine (what would now be year 5) who was constantly deviating from whatever lesson plan he had to follow through something a child had said - we'd read a poem, that would spark questions, we'd jump on to some other topic - that can't happen now because it's all x minutes on this, and x minutes on that and, tough if you didn't get it in the time allocated on the timetable.

And I know this isn't mentioned in the letter so it's a little off at a tangent but I was looking at the new Tridias catalogue (children's toys) yesterday and they are selling something called a firebowl - you can get a pan on a stand to put above it. It says "adult supervision needed, for outside use only and not a toy" and there is a picture of a boy, aged about 10, sitting by a blazing fire in the firebowl. I said to dh "blimey, I can't see them selling many of those...wouldn't let ds1 have such a thing." And then I remembered 'camping' in our cellar, aged about 8, with a stove made out of a tin can and a candle. We used to go out all day on our bikes, take picnics, explore disused railway lines...and only come back at tea time. Ds1 has never been out of the house on his own - and he'll be 10 in March. I feel I am doing him no favours but at the same time I can't bring myself to allow him the same kind of freedom that I had as a child.

What made a generation like ours - that had that sort of freedom just to be children - decide en masse to bring up our children in such a restricted way? Where we take them to safe "soft play" areas, parks, and organised activities? What changed, between the 70s and now?

That was a ramble, wasn't it? I need some lunch, think I have low blood sugar.

Dh fishes and is teaching ds to balsa-model, so at 7 he is already learning how to use sharp knives and other sharp things carefully.
Are you getting yours that Dangerous Book for Boys for Xmas moo? I don't think it's that much of a tangent really

Yes, I think I might, Marina - but again - oh the irony - of buying a book to instruct my child how to do childhood things. I never had a book!

But my mum wasn't crafty or even that domesticated (borderline feral at times ) so my constant companion in my youth was my McCall's Golden Do-It Book...

Fuck me, this is worrying, I agree with a letter in the Torygraph

Kids need to be kids, it is how they learn.

My kids spent the better part of 4 weeks this summer running round, building dens, falling off trees, playing with other kids with almost zero adult supervision. They loved it and have made huge steps forwars in their social and linguistic skills (most of all my ds who struggles with this sort of thing. I didn't do it to 'educate' them, I did it because it was fun for them and for me. For 4 weeks they had the sort of childhood that I had as a kid. No TV, no computers just a park and trees and sticks and mud.

I teach kids at the other end of the growing up buisness. I am sick and tired of seeing kids pressurised into being adults before they can cope with it. Teenagers are shit at being adult and great at being teenagers. We forget this at their cost.....and ours.

I got bollocked by my PGCE tutor because I call the kids, boys and girls. She thought I was indulting her. I thought she was a wanker of the first water. Guess who's just got record numbers of kids doing A level....me, because I treat them as kids, and they love it.

I did have a book called "101 Things To Do on Rainy Days" I got it for Christmas. In fact I got two copies (it must have been the "Dangerous Book" for 1977) Relatives we hardly saw turned up a couple of days after Christmas bearing gifts so my Mum speedily wrapped the extra copy and presented it to my cousin. She hadn't noticed that the full title of the book was "101 Things To Do On Rainy Days: For Girls" He said "thank you, Auntie Pat" very politely. See, children were well brought up in those days

I bet they were more 'depressed' when they were stuck up chimneys or under cotton looms all day.

my old school librarian co-wrote a book liek that

it was fabby

divided into seasons

please seomeon find it for me

(her name was barbara sherrard-smith)

lol kr thats what my mum says (and I am starting to agree with her)

I had a 365 things to do book.

One section was a list of things if you were confined to bed after an illness.

I so wanted to be sent to bed and have a tray of food, and things to entertain me!

It's true thought isn't it. We worry too much these days, about everything related to our children. They want to be grateful they're not "down pit".

I bet 9 times out of 10 itsn ot depression

just good old fashioned mooching about and thinking too much

MB - I'd like that now!

i think that was it mb

god I loved that book

The being confined to bed bit I mean.

me too

but I have to plan a lesson on the hormonal control of ovulation for the sixth form, and one on pesticides and intesive farming for year 11!