Day 25

I live my life pretty much without fear of anything happening that is bad because of where I live.  It is a calm peaceful neighborhood that does not have problems with theft or noisy neighbors.  We do watch out for each other so that if one or the other is out of town that we know who should be in our homes or not.  It’s nice and I have made a point of knowing my neighbors because this is how my folks lived and I want that for myself.  I only have three families that are in this “Neighborhood” so with just the three houses it is not too hard to do this.  In this area we also wave at our neighbors when they are out for a walk and if I saw you walking in part of this area I might just stop and see if you need a ride.  It’s different in my home in Colorado and also in Indiana where I was born. These areas have grown to the point that it would be a scary thing to pick up a person walking along the road.   When I was young this was very different.  Both of these places were ideal places for a young family with children to live and not worry about letting the children go outside to play.  Children stay inside now on a regular basis and leaving the house to play outside is rare.  The opposite is true for my childhood pretty much our lips had to be turning blue to get to play inside.  TV was allowed only on the weekends and during the summer on weekdays and only in the evenings except Saturday morning cartoons.  Sunday night at ten o’clock was the cut off time and only on special events did we get to watch on a school night.  We lived to watch the Friday night creature features and get scared by the movies.  Our clock to let us know when it was time to come in the house was the sun and when it was down we were to be in the house.  No exceptions.  I feel sorry in a way for the kids of today because they will never know the freedom of going and playing any where they want to go in either biking or walking distance.  Some days we would bike to some area as far as the road would take us and then hike to where we wanted to go.  I was a sting bean with skinny legs from all the exercise that I had in the time.  This to me is the difference in this generation’s weight problem and mine now too.  They are stuck on either a TV or a computer playing a game or watching a video and the parents are scared to let them go outside on their own.  The parents also have issues with both parents working causing them to have to work at home to do the things that used to be done by a “housewife” like laundry, cleaning the house and fixing the daily meals.  Soda was a treat and my mother only gave us one bottle for the three of us to share together.  One of us would split the soda and the other two got to pick first so trust me there is no better way to get the split even.    With these duties being left for after work it is hard for the average parent to spend the time until dark outside watching the kids and I understand just how hard it would be to make this time happen.  I am going to put out an idea that maybe might solve a couple of problems.  Have a sort of play gang for a few hours after school that involved the scheduling of the neighbors time with yours.  We played the games in season and with minimal equipment.   The basketball hoop and ball were the most expensive ones.  We played kick the can a lot and tag or even with a box and sometimes played with toys like trucks and horses.  They may even have a favorite from school that they want to play.  It will require you getting to know your neighbors and organizing the times that each parent would watch the kids so their play would be safe but the health of our children would improve so very much and you might also find that once they had played outside that they could concentrate on their studies better.  The release of pent up energy these kids have could also change behavior problems too.  There are organized leagues for play right now but to me it is just not the same as choosing what you want to do each day.  We lose that creative thought process when we do not have to imagine what we want to do.  I know times have changed and what I am asking would require some teamwork on the parts of the parents but the health and social skills kids learn from cooperative play is a valuable tool that they can take the rest of their lives.