Promote more Play

My buddy Dora, over at Confessions of a Soccer Mom, wrote about how kids today are so overprogrammed that they don't have anytime to be themselves or find out who they are, and as I started to comment, it was something that the (few) readers of this blog might appreciate as well. Here is a link to the CBS News article as well, so you can read it as well.

This a bigger issue than kids just being overprogrammed by their parents. Does anyone ask themselves why this happening? Kids are not allowed to be just kids anymore since parents believe that predators are waiting around every real and virtual corner ready to attack their child. Time magazine, I believe, coined the phrase "Milk Carton Mania" which many of my generation had drilled into their heads in the 80's and 90's, that any kid can go missing at any time and you can never let them out of your site. What they don't tell you is that 90% or more of abducted children are taken by family members or someone they know, rather than a random act of kidnapping or child snatching.

This paranoia is further fueled and explempified by the media, in what I call the "Oprahization" of an event or crime. When something heinous happens, whether it is a kidnapping or child exploitation or molestation or whatever, then the media explores and pnitificates the question, can this happen to you?

Parents today seem to believe that their neighborhoods are not safe, the parks are not safe, the neighbors are not safe, etc. It used to be you could ride your bike miles to your friends house for the day, where you can see the world at your pace. Now you are not allowed to leave your parents view in your own yard. It is no wonder that parents feel the need to overprogram their schedules, then put them in front of the TV to watch Elmo (hey I am guilty) , because we know that nothing is going to happen to them when we can control the situations and circumstances.

How can you be a kid and develop a sense of individuality when the parents in today's society have become overly paranoid? This paranoia is perceived and learned by the child and deemed to be acceptable since we all know that ultimately children will emulate their parents.

This does not mean we shouldn't still teach our children to be cautious in crowds, to teach our children not to talk to strangers, but we should allow them certain age appropriate freedoms that will allow them to create, learn, think and act as individuals, so that as adults they can become solid citizens, who know how to take care of themselves and are not reliant on others (especially the government) to run their lives for them.

So I say lets "Promote more Play" in our kids, since this is the only childhood they will have ever have.