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?

Horses are nice. From far away.

We don't have a garden and cannot afford to even rent a place w/one. The nearest park is well out of eyeshot, across two very busy roads.

In order to send out child to the Gaelic primary unit - the secondary schools are pure shit around here - it will involve a 'school run'.

Wish people wouldn't be so quick to level blame at parents.

Sometimes it's not so cut and dry.

MartianBishop: I've never been camping (well not since the Girl Guides!). So I'm curious, why do your children have more freedom in a campsite than they do at home or say if you were staying in a country cottage or a gite?

sigh. myth of life being better in the cuntry.

They have more freedom camping 'cos you can't keep the little bleeders confined IME

More fun camping because there tend to be more kids to run and play with (unless you go to a gite with another familey etc)

More space on a campsite

No chance to watch TV etc

campsites tend to be full of children playing outside, together with trees, streams, play areas. traffic goes slowly and there's an expectation that children will be playing and getting priority. my 6yo especially likes going on her own to the campsite shop, buying bread and milk etc, she's a bit little for going shopping on her own normally.

Earlier this summer there was an item on the news comparing children's lives during this heatwave, compared to the heatwave of 1977. Cue lots of reminiscences of adult-free bike rides, picnics, swimming in rivers etc etc. Then they asked a group of mums supervising their children in a London park exactly the question posed by marthamoo: 'what's changed?'. Everyone thought that there was a vastly increased risk of child abduction now, and then they revealed the startling statistic that in fact child-abduction is down 80% on what is was in 1977.

The difference is the media coverage. When it does happen we are given blanket coverage in such intimate, personal detail that on some level we actually start to feel that we know the people involved. So Holly wells and Jessica Chapman go missing in a village three hundred miles from me, but their faces and their families and their neighbourhood becomes so familiar to me in the days following that it's almost the same as if it had happened in the next street. And so you feel the same danger is out there for your own child.

On a slightly different note: that Jacqueline Wilson's got a bit of a nerve. It's entirely thanks to her that my children despise their boring old fashioned family and want to live in a childrens home/bed and breakfast, go on the run from a violent father/get into trouble with the police etc etc.

lol, @ Jaqueiline Wilson having a nerve, orlando! Agree with the more serious bit of your post too.

orlando, children's homes have become peculiarly popular in our house too...

Obsessed with them, dd1 was. 'Why can't I live in a children's home like everyone else?'

It sort of takes the sting out of threats like "if you don't like it here, you can go into care..."

it would be cheaper to send them all to a children's home than to a posh boarding school though, which is what they'd have wanted if they'd been reading the books I was addicted to as a child.

LOL @ Orlando.
There was no Jacqueline Wilson in my day but I still wanted to be an orphan.

To be fair, I don't think there was any mention in the letter of children having disadvantaged childhoods due to not having the geographical freedom we did in the 70s. It may be a considerable issue but not one that was part of the consideration of the 100 people who put their name to that letter.

well i don't know what they're on about, i played with video games all the time when i was little. it hasn't done me any harm. i can get up and leave this any time i want to...

in america I think the trend is more pronounced (I live In USA) and worry that the uk will slowly but surely catch up. here most children go to school on the bus, they go straight to classrooms - not to play ground, there is no am or pm playtime(recess). Lunch break is cancelled at any sign of cold/ heat/ wet. The number of overweight children I see leaving school is frightening. Half the class is labelled as adhd and I have to say that I beleive the reaality is simply that many of these children have energy to burn and no opportunity to expell it. They come home to homework from age 5 and in our area have pushy pushy parents who insist on piano lessons, tutors and the like. They watch television even on a 10 minute car journey. In this affluent Washington suburb (not red neck hicksville) the letter certainly resonates. I hope the UK doesn't go the same way!

Rant over.

I wanted to be a nun, I was infatuated by Maria von Trapp (obv pre-trapp) and any films with visions of the virgin...

One problem with giving kids 'freedom' is that because NO ONE DOES, children who are out by themselves are really conspicuous. If I see children by themselves I really notice them. I think that the unusual nature of unsupervised children makes it more of a risk.

From about the age of 4-5 my brother (now in his 50s) played outside with his friends for most of the evenings, and all day on the weekends and in the holidays.

I am in my 40s, I was an uber nerd kid, but even I played outside , with other kids, without adult supervision for hours at a time on a regular basis.

My kids only get this experience when we go camping.

Kids need to be with other kids without an adult breating down their neck all the time. It is when they get to do all the annoying stuff that pisses off the adults.

They need to do it, and we need to let them. Not only for their good, but because it helps us if we give them feedom in little doses.

Jimjams has mentioned in the past children who are growing up to think that the world revolves around them. these are the kids who are mollycoddled from morn to night, with constant praise and support and encouragement. It isn't good for them. Played with, entertained and shipped from one structured activity to the next. Kids need to get the corners knocked off them by other kids. They need to learn how to entertain themselves, how to deal with boredom, how to deal with other kids that they don't get on with.

I'm not advocating neglect, praise is a wonderful thing, but not all the time. And guess what, we end up far less stressed, with less navel gazing about the relative benefits of water and juice, karate or judo, ORT or 360 Ginns.

We all need to take a chill pill and let the kids be kids.

Don't you believe it, fennel. Children's homes cost a fortune. So much so that it's sometimes suggested that a placement at Eton would be a much cheaper alternative.

Bundle I wanted to be a nun as well!

On a day like today (well it is rather nice here) I wouldn't have been given the option but to play out. In fact, it raining and being allowed to play in the house with friends was a treat.

On the subject of kids being allowed to do their own thing, my 2 are seriously annoyed at their school. 2 of their 3 playtimes - the 2 longest ones - are now filled with structured play. They call it 'huff and puff' or some such god-awful name. The kids have to choose one activity to do - playing with balls, bean bags, etc etc. They aren't allowed to play do their own thing anymore. OK so some of the childrens' ideas of 'their own thing' might have been a bit sedentary or troublesome but I feel quite upset that they aren't trusted to have that little bit of free-time and do what the choose with it. Their free-time at school is now restricted to one 10 minute break and the 10 minutes or so before school starts.

How's that for stifling imagination and independence of thought.

And on the subject of ambition I wanted to be Elizabeth the first.

OMG joelallie