As a grandfather I watched my grandkids grow up with their constantly organized activities-school,

[rzemanfl]

lessons in profusion, practices, organized sports, meets, contests, recitals, playoffs, etc., etc. My childhood was "be home by dark." I wondered what today's constantly organized, seemingly regimented childhoods would produce. Since Valentine's Day and especially this weekend, I learned the product is kids who are well-spoken and have no awe of adults.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Kids who are "isolated and in their phones all day" can also have a sophisticated

understanding of communication tactics -- keeping people in the loop, getting the word out quickly and uniformly across multiple channels, and so on. And given half a chance, they are very good at discerning legit information from bullshit.

[crazycatlady]

6. kids today grew up with social media

My cousin, now 18, first joined FB at the age of 9 (and lied about her age to get an account). They don't know a world without it.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. What I'm saying is that there are a lot of people who bemoaned the fact that kids were growing up

on social media and "not living in the real world," when they were actually establishing and cultivating sophisticated social networks they could activate in seconds. It's easy to demean skills you don't recognize as skills.

[crazycatlady]

13. As a non boomer, I hear it here all the time

I had a very overscheduled childhood. Most of the activities I was signed up for were not my choice.

[ProudLib72]

2. There are a lot of things going on in the new system you describe

Highly structured lives, much more socializing with diverse groups of kids (not the two or three you used to play with but dozens), greater sense of belonging, greater sense of purpose.

I didn't grow up like that, but my niece is. So the question is, Do children need that in order to be well adjusted? If they do, has this always been true, or is it a symptom of the times? This opens up a lot of sociological questions that need to be studied.

[Sophia4]

4. Think of a village.

All age groups, all people, everyone relies upon each other and the totality of the group to survive. I lived in a small village of 7 houses at one time in my life. It was great.

Our children and grandchildren are constructing a much larger, expanded village via social media and their activities.

Good for them.

[rzemanfl]

9. I started college having never known a black or Jewish person. Not my grandchildren. n/t

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. I had to be home when the streetlights came on -- same difference, of course.

If the big kids were out playing running bases in the street, we were allowed to stay out later and play the game with them in the street.

Once when I was maybe 6, there was a big accident five houses away on the corner. My mother started freaking out because she didn't know where is was so ran out the front door screaming my name. I was safely in the back yard playing with friends.

[Skittles]

5. my mum did not know how to drive

and my dad worked more than one job

the possibility of doing anything after school = ZERO

[rzemanfl]

8. My mother was not allowed to learn how to drive. She learned later in life

on the sly and got her license. Once she had it, my father bought her a new car every few years. Her being able to drive was helpful when my father became ill with heart failure and died very young.

[NCTraveler]

7. Interesting. Nt

[csziggy]

10. I grew up in a small town in walking distance of the schools

So any after school stuff any of us kids wanted to participate in were an easy distance away. It was very effective for my two older sisters. On the other hand, I was not into participation and spent as much of my high school years as possible on horseback getting as far away from town and people as possible.

During the summer, there was a summer crafts program in the shop classroom at the high school. I went nearly every summer from when I was six years old. We made stuff and socialized so it fit into the structured activities that seem to fill kids' lives today. Mostly it was to help out working parents who could not afford childcare over the summers but it gave us a place to be and things to do.

[GreenEyedLefty]

11. I have 2 kids old enough to vote plus one in high school

I grew up in the "be home by dark" generation. My kids are of the lessons, sports, etc. generation. I teach my kids to question EVERYTHING, especially after 9/11 and every event thereafter. I tend to parent in a way that is a way of clapping back at how I was raised. I was always taught to "respect my elders" and never talk back. Well that was a bullshit way to grow up.

[grantcart]

14. Home by dark, during the summer back by August

We didn't have much see of adults during the sixties.
Seems to have passes a generation.

[TimeToGo]

15. Lost the causal chain in the OP

[rzemanfl]

16. I am honored you bothered to post a response. n/t

[TimeToGo]

17. I mean, ?

[rzemanfl]

18. You're a reader, not a poster. About 61 posts a year since 2004.

[TimeToGo]

19. Ahh

I'm slow to post, but steadfast in my monitoring.

[rzemanfl]

20. "Bothered" was probably a poor word choice. "Took the time to" would have been better. n/t

[TimeToGo]

21. 😎