General Reflections

This past weekend was very busy given the fact that it was our daughter's birthday Friday followed by two days of grand children sports and yard work.  In fact this is a generally very busy time of year.  Between sports and end-of-year activities as school winds down for the summer there isn't much time for anything else.  But in no way is this a complaint.  It's all good stuff.

As I reflect on the lives of our children and grand children, I'm struck by how different it is for them compared to when I was a child many years ago.   For my sister and me the only organized sporting events we were involved in were our daily trips on our bicycles to a local field where we played baseball with other neighborhood kids.  Forget about school or town sponsored sports.  They simply didn't exist.

End of year school events were also different.  For us there simply weren't any.  For our grand children and even their parents there are a variety of things going on, i.e. concerts, field trips, field days, authors's teas, fairs of various kinds, etc.

In many ways kids today have far more challenges than we did.  Social media alone can turn into a mine field for teens.  But in other ways they're much more fortunate.  There are many more opportunities for them to enjoy  than what was available for those of my generation. 

From time to time I hear people offer the possibility that maybe kids today are too busy.  Maybe they should have more unscheduled time in order to create games of their own instead of everything being planned for them. To me both sides of the issue have good points.  During my teaching days there were many times when my students' out-of-school activities interfered with school. 

The bottom line is it's all about parenting.  Parents are the ones in charge so they're the ones who must set the standard and act responsibly.  Sure, give kids opportunities but let's also give them time to be kids.