Growing up in the 60s (yikes) in Nashville, I played outside mostly, going from house to house with a wagon in tow, or sometimes skates, a bike or possibly a carriage of some sort. There was always a friend to be found and once the 70s hit and I was old enough, I could ride my bike to the Library or 7-11 on my own. In Nashville!
There was a bell on my house that would be rung when it was time to come in for dinner. We watched a few TV shows, but mostly, we were technology challenged.
In the 80s, I got married my last quarter of college, and moved to Ohio with a Communications Degree, a husband who worked in broadcasting and our first computer, and eventually a job at a local television station. Technology was no longer a problem! We eventually brought two daughters into our world and raised them in the 80s and 90s with some technology but still sending them out to play and find neighborhood friends in the woods and dirt and snow in our newly-established neighborhood. Sure we shared technology with them, but also shared lemonade stands, books, sidewalk chalk, lightning bugs, snipe hunts, and the list goes on.
VHS tapes and plugging kids into TV was new, and we disliked much of what was available so we still leaned on books, although the pressure for screens in cars and phones was there. Our girls went to Appalachia and put roofs on houses, but also were instant messaging and growing with technology. One of my favorite stories I share with younger mom friends now is:
My oldest daughter was in Law School and she was the only one who didn’t have a smartphone.” 😉
In 2019, I watch my grands and their contemporaries with screen time readily available. I share with them bubbles and sidewalk chalk and my husband shares hotdogs over the fire and some screen time (i.e. Baby Shark and Daniel Tiger). I work in a library in an elementary school and talk about technology safety with my students. I am always shocked when we have conversations about the games they play, the sites they visit, the amount of time they spend online, but most importantly the lack of supervision my students say they have.
I remember a conversation with one of my daughters’ 2nd-grade teachers: “I will believe half of what your child tells me about you if you believe half of what they say about me.” I hope I can disbelieve what my students are saying about parents not monitoring screen time. The internet for our young children is a much scarier place than the neighborhood haunts my kids visited decades ago.
My wish for all kids today is a simpler time where screen games are less prevalent and board games, books and bubbles and chalk prevail, and time spent with their families talking to each other instead of Siri.
