Mom's flowering vine...
Saturday morning....we had been taking the 2 dogs out for a walk early (before 8, because of the heat) but Romeo (my husband) was quite grumpy this morning and said he didn't feel like it because he had "lots to do". He promptly took a shower and left. Presumably to the hardware store, where the employees likely know him well.
While enjoying my coffee & deliciously decadent croissant, I have been watching the news. I prefer the morning news as it doesn't get down and dirty like the evening news does. So, as I'm watching, I see that it's basically a 30 min show that is on for 1 to 2 hours, and they just keep repeating the same stories every 30 min. I have taken to changing channels at the half hour so that I don't have to keep watching/hearing the same story over and over. It seems strange to me that there is so little news that they repeat every 30 min? It's a pretty big world out there. Let's broaden our horizons and look out the window now and then.
This week on Facebook, one of my friends shared a post about "playdates". I wasn't going to read it since I don't have any little people in my house (& my grandson lives in another state), but the news was repeating itself, so I indulged. It nearly perfectly described my childhood, except that instead of calling friends to see if they could play, my sister and simply walked around the neighborhood. We lived in a neighborhood that housed mostly Air Force families, as it was close to the base, and inexpensive. (I think my Mom told me the house I grew up in until 7th grade cost about 13,000 ~ less than the price of a new car these days!) On Saturday mornings, I would scarf down breakfast (usually cold cereal), grab my bike and Dennis, Julie, or Mary and I would ride until lunch time, exploring the neighborhood. Once we found an old graveyard and had fun walking around looking at the names on the headstones and the year they died ~ at the age of 8, death seemed pretty exotic. Sometimes a few of us would walk down to the elementary school down the street and play tether ball (back when they didn't take the ball down at night, because no one would steal it). My Mom didn't worry about where I was or what I was doing, as long as I came home for dinner. Now, apparently, parents make "playdates" because parents must know where their children are every minute of the day. Understandable. We've seen the news stories, haven't we? Would you let your kid leave in the morning and bike ride all day without knowing where they are and who they are with? And yet, it seems that everything has become too structured. Lacking in spontaneity, and creativity. Kids don't know how to entertain themselves (which was a survival mechanism when I was a kid, or Mom would give you something to do, namely chores). Giving your child the i-pad to play with is not creative, and is not an activity. However, that works when you're trying to grocery shop, lol. I don't know what the answer is, but I will take this opportunity to mourn the loss of freedom to today's kids.
Love, 365
P.S. I heard this week that I was accepted into the Bloomsbury Honor International!
P.S. I heard this week that I was accepted into the Bloomsbury Honor International!
I don't watch broadcast news at all. I can't stand the breathless plastic people who bob and shake their heads, chiclet teeth snapping together or being flashed briefly in some sort of grin after they tell me the death toll.
ReplyDeleteWe used to get out and play all day in the summer, too. I don't know if things were safer then or if people just didn't know how many horrible things were done to children.
Mine weren't allowed the freedom I had. I think partly because I lived in the country and my children were raised in the city.
Life in our world is constantly changing, and I am not sure we notice the day to day difference. But when you compare today with 35 or 40 years ago, you can sure see it.
Well, I didn't grow up in the country, but San Antonio (which is pretty darn big). Once my sister and I walked to Lackland AFB to swim. Our flip flops were completely worn out by the time we got home, and our Mom was furious (we did have to cross a highway, lol).
DeleteLike you, I'm not sure about how safe things were then compared to now, although I do think that people who do awful things to other people don't have any shame or remorse these days. They tend to blame it on their "abusive childhood" or some such crap.
**News has come a long way since Walter Cronkite's days. My parents always watched him, and he seemed much more serious and believable than the ones we have today ~ which it seems its more important to be entertaining than deliver the news. "chiclet teeth snapping together" ~ you are too much, lol!!