Comments on: Monday Teeny Poll

By: Never teh Bride

Never teh Bride — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:24:45 +0000

I think you can be focused on the family without having to fill your life with KIDSTUFF. Growing up, there were family mealtimes and family outings and (barf) family vacations, but it’s not like I was dragged from tutoring to sports to paper folding classes and then allowed to watch a DVD in the backseat on the ride home. I (and my siblings) had to amuse ourselves and spend time with older people being well behaved.

I had to eat what the grownups were eating, too.

By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:33:01 +0000

I think having a kid just makes you more sensitive to these things. There have always been summer camps, etc. And I resist the kidcentric choices of public spaces, precisely because it’s like segregation by pandering. A playground is great, and a playground with a bocce pit next door where they old men gather and gossip is even better. The generations have to learn to mingle or we’re going to end up with an unbearably precious generation of twits on one hand and on the other a bunch of superfit retirees yelling “Get offa my lawn” and beating slow, fat kids up.

By: Eilish

Eilish — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:52:58 +0000

I have similar feelings to marvel. While outwardly there seem to be many kid-centric activities and events, actual family-friendliness seems to be waning. It seems like many of these types of activities serve to parcel out family members to individual interests instead of fostering the sense of family that was the launching pad for my own childhood identity.

Most of my time was spent with my family, either with mom or dad or both in some family activity like cooking, camping or gardening; or just with my brothers and sisters playing in our backyard or neighborhood. We never had classes except for school and the only extra-curricular activities were sports (one per year per kid) and church activities (every Wednesday evening and the whole family went). When I think about it, except for Wednesday nights, we were almost always at home, and we ate dinner together with rare exception. I guess when I think of kid-friendly, I really think family-friendly, since that is my association; and there seems to be less family-friendliness. I hope that makes sense.

By: marvel

marvel — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:16:37 +0000

Related blog post at:

http://knoxvilletalks.com/2008/05/02/the-value-of-a-few-skinned-knees/

I’m all for having lots of fun things for the little tyke to do, so having lots of options available is a good thing. But it’s important to strike a balance between organized fun and free-form play; I think kids learn more from the free-form style than scheduled activities. Also I think too many parents get caught up in the “keep-up-with-the-Jones” mentality, of thinking that the more money you spend the better a parent you are. Which is ridiculous, because what kids need is time, not expense, and a half hour spent with Mommy in the kitchen pouring tap water into various measuring cups is just as good as a half-hour at a summer “science” camp for a toddler. Probably better.