how adults/children spend their time

[paul123456]

hello there ,

I was just looking back on today , we've got 4 kids in 2 batches , the oldest set is a boy of 19 and a girl of 13.
the youngest batch is a girl of 3 and a baby boy of one week old .
Seems like we've got a double set of both .Good ,Our use has got quite a few rooms , it's 2 house joined to 1 .
In the new part the 2 oldest sleep , it the old part with us the 2 youngest sleep .

So , today was a reasonable good summersday , I can remember when I lived in the UK at the age of 9
I went with my friends on the bike or walked for 5 or more mile to the local trout farm , or reservoir to play.
We would also raid apple tree's to bring hpme apples ,build dams in streams and rivers ,poach trout in
streams by tickeling them , bring in coal at night , wake up in the morning with ice flowers on the inside of the glass.
Get the bus for 2p to town , make skate boards out of old roller skates , pick blackberrys with grandad on sunday,
be enchanted by the site of a steam train , go bird nesting to find out where which birds had a nest ...........

Today my oldest 2 where on the computer , banging away on the keyboard ,chatting as they call it ,further
they had or a play station on , a nintendo , and or mobile phone texting , a stereo system for the sound of the
playstation , .............. ?

Am I turning into a sentimental old so@#^, or is this the real life ?

I think when we where young ,that without all the modern cons of now , we were much happier children ,
what's you's opinions ?

regards

Paul

[Urban Ayisha]

maybe so but i do think that to some extent it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure this 'happiness'. the only reason we didnt spend all hours on the computer or on a playstation or wii or whatever is because our parents didnt furnish us with them in the first place! of course we would have liked them to, but now that i am older i can see the benefit it did us.

[Milims]

My daughter seems to spend a huge amount of time straightening her hair!
At the moment my son and his friend are playing on the X-box - but it's raining here. Otherwise the kids are encouraged to play out on bikes etc or go down to the beach. That said, we live in a small village on a tourist route so we do have to be very careful - my son has already been knocked off his bike this holidays! We are also limited for public transport - there is a bus every 2 hours which takes an hour to travel the 8 miles into town so going swimming isn't that easy. That said they are rarely bored and often indulge in things like Poi, dancing and acrobatics!

[Graye]

I think we all (adults and children) can entertain ourselves perfectly well when pushed into it. I like to think when my son, DIL and two children come here to visit that they really do have a relaxing holiday without all the normal distractions.

Whilst they were here this time my OH totally refused to have Big Brother on our TV, which is rarely switched on for TV channel receiving anyway. After not seeing two episodes my son & DIL realised they hadn't missed it. They were also amused that we always "mute" the adverts when we watch TV. They even commented that there IS life without the TV on constantly and will give it a try back home. The baby fell asleep to Classic FM regularly (we receive it via satellite on the TV and very often have it on) and seemed to relax when lying in her chair within hearing distance of it.

The six year old DID have her MP3 player and DS but she was strictly rationed so we played Ludo, snakes & ladders and tennis, swam in the pool, read books, had Sudoku competitions and went for walks. She played her violin (quite funny to see OH, who was a music teacher for years having to dredge out his violin skills) learned some French and we read Heidi together, a book I loved as a child. We actually sat down on the terrace and talked in the evenings which I think is a novelty for some people.

Of course we are very fortunate to live in a tiny French hamlet where more than two cars a day is a novelty and strangers stand out like a sore thumb. I can understand parents wanting to be very watchful of their children in this day and age so perhaps wandering through woods and so on isn't quite so common as it used to be. I remember being out and about nearly all day at six years old and always perfectly safe but I certainly wouldn't think this would be possible these days.

[mrsflibble]

i make sure sophie has the best of both worlds that I can give. she has her own patch in the garden, free roaming between house and garden on fine days, and I take her forraging with me. by age 2 she could recognise a ripe blackberry. We also own a laptop, a desktop computer, a PS2, DVD player and have excellent freeview reception. I also own an ipod which sophie is allowed to borrow for watching films and kiddy stuff.

my brothers and sister on the other hand are fairly far removed from nature and spend most of their time on electronic gadgets.

I'm not sure where the line between modern technology and modern kids should end and the scrumping, poaching, fruit gathering of yesteryear (and in this household, this morning)