What works when it comes to making folks think twice about constantly hovering, helping, supervising and scheduling their kids?
The message they mostly hear is that constant intervention is good, and anything less is lazy or dangerous. So below, please find my very basic attempt at a little culture-nudging video. Can you please let me know if this is something — more short videos — I should be pursuing? Or is it something you can make, too, to further the cause? Or maybe your kids can?
Trying to get ever more traction! – L.
A kid today? Not a chance.
The luckiest dice I ever rolled was to be born exactly when I was.
My childhood was no picnic.
But I mention that to point out that even so, it was paradise compared to what a kid (like I was) would face growing up today.
And I’ll keep this short and sweet.
The reason why?
Freedom. That one thing.
This video is cute! But the one that I absolutely loved, which may have been the last one you posted before this, was the “Independence Challenge 2002 Winners” video. That one was *awesome*–went right up on my Facebook.
I just watched “Independence Challenge 2002 Winners” because of Kenny’s post above. I loved it too! But I also liked this video. My suggestion… Combine the two. Start it with your question, “Would you want to be a kid today” and the reminders of the freedom we had as kids, and then go to something like, “Look what freedom had done for some kids today…”.
For me, freedom went with responsibility. Right! I never have a parent answer wish his parents had supervised him more. When I follow up: So why not the same with your kids?, there’s usually hesitation, shrugging, something vague about the world being different now. They don’t even know why they don’t look to live lives that reward themselves, without kid props, preoccupations. Where to turn off that insidious peer pressure switch. I would focus it more on what your target is: Did you like the freedoms you enjoyed as a kid? Did they serve you well? So why deny these to your kids? Or some such. Many people enjoy techno progress, civil rights advances, less poverty, medical advances, diversity. It’s well-to-do white kids who have it worse now, I believe. Upbringing requires independence to face what you encounter, to experience falling short, even outright failure. Could you learn to ride a bike without losing your balance and falling? Again and again? Could you learn to love and be loved by a pet, without that experience (Are there places to go and play with others’ pets, foster arrangements?)