Jan 18, 2011

What our kid's kids won't know...


While at work today (I know, shame shame) I was reading Yahoo and saw this article on the front page.  Thinking about this for a while, from reactions my daughter had to some items that we still have at home, this blog is long overdue!  Featured promidently on the front page was this article about, Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know About...  Having thought about this for a long time, I thought it's about damn time I blog about it...

We have lived in the same house all my life, and actually, my mom has lived there for 56 years as well.  So as you can imagine, our home is filled with items that are antique, vintage and just old!  There are things there from her childhood as well as mine.  (Yes, we STILL have old toys of mine -- we're packrats!)  Since we are going to have to be moving sooner or later, we have been slowly clearing through things we don't want anymore.  Now, you know kids are very nosey, and mine have been wanting to see and play with toys that we had put away that were mine.  I've heard many different things from them from, "Hey, this Barbie doesn't have fashionable clothes!" to "These toys don't make sounds?" and even, "This gameboy is black and white!"  Ahh, kids of the technology age...  I had to explain to them that the technology in the 80's and 90's really wasn't what it is now.  Video game systems were black and white for a while as well as pixelated when they finally got color.  Try explaining that to a 5 year old who ALREADY thinks you're old at 25. (And 3/4s!)

This article is right on at most of the items that they feature.  My kids only know about VHS tapes because I brought some up that have older kids shows on them. (And even then, they giggled about the poor quality! We didn't have HDTV back then!)  They have no idea what a cassette tape is, I showed them once and they laughed.  They asked how I got that into a CD player in my car. Ha! 

Most importantly, kids will not know how to use their imagination when they play with each other.  What about just going outside and playing a nice game of tag?   Video games and other electronic toys have prevented kids from being active.  It's difficult, these days to get kids off the computer, video games, etc... to actually go outside.  (I know this first hand.)  It isn't only the kids fault, some of their parents also encourage this and use TV, Video Games and so on as "babysitters".  However, that isn't the way that we should be dealing with our children.  Quality time is important for behavior and growth.

It's actually pretty intriguing how technology  has changed even from the 1980's when I was born.  Things have advanced so much and will just keep advancing in the future.  I found that article pretty interesting for many reasons. (Even though, I do disagree about the watch -- people still will wear watches as fashion pieces.  Seldom do people want to actually dig in their purse or reach in their pockets to find out the time)  Our children are the future.  They will see more changes and advances than anyone else. 

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