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Children being children

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Berean, May 30, 2011.

  1. Berean

    Berean Member
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    In the last two weeks I have had the opportunity of attending baseball games for grandchildren age 4 amd 5 years and a kindergarten graduation for a 5 year old great grandchild. These two events have caused me to ask myself the question, "are we exploiting our children for our enjoyment". Today we see all sorts of accounts of parents rushing pre school aged children into all kinds of events at this early age even one mother injection her daughter with Botox. I believe these children would much rather br doind "kid stuff" like catching toads or chasing butterflys.
    It is my belief that if we started our children in competive sports at the age of about eight or ten our chance of keeping them involved would greatly in crease. Thereby giving them alternatives to drugs and sex at an early age. Today we do not have a baseball league for 13 and 14 year old boys where as 30 years ago we had as many as 25 or 30 teams in this age group. Today if a boy is not a star or his father is a coach he is burned out and ready to explore something else.
     
  2. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Generally speaking, I agree with you. Kids are doing things that are pre-arranged and scheduled compared to kids of a generation ago. Why is that?

    In my case it's because of the density of children in our neighborhood. I've got 13 year old and 10 year old boys. There is only four boys their age in our neighborhood (within a block or two of our house.) When I was a kid there were dozens of kids my age within 2 blocks of my house. In the summer we'd go out and play until the street light came on. Yes, we played organized sports but we also played pick up games in the vacant lot as well. Explored wooded areas, played hide and seek, army, kick the can, etc. I blame the decline of these sorts of activities with today's youngsters on video games, TV, and scheduled activities.

    Another factor is that my kids go to a Christian school, the other boys in the neighborhood do not. So they don't interact with their neighbors at school.

    As to starting competitive sports at 5 and 6 years old, well, that is too early. I speak as a youth baseball coach. I agree that kids will be burned out on sports if they start at 5 years old, especially if parents insist (or force) them to play.

    The important thing is--are the kids having fun? If they are, I wouldn't get too worried about it. It's just a different type of fun than what it was when we grew up.
     
  3. menageriekeeper

    menageriekeeper Active Member

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    Personally? My children made their own decisions about what extra cirricular activity they participated in depending on my budget at the time. (yeah, that means I view extra cirricular activities as EXTRA and they are likely to be first thing to go if the budget gets decreased)

    I didn't force any of them into anything because "its good for them", cause I was the kid who parents couldn't afford anything and I still grew up to be a well educated, intelligent adult with a love for learning. Life goes on without the rounds of sports, music and dance lessons.

    On top of that I have three kids and a godson who is here most of the time. I did ONE year of being "soccer mom" and I was D-O-N-E! I told my kids they could each do 1 thing that I had to make room in my schedule for and that was it. Life slowed down to only 90 miles an hour after that. :eek:

    The point? Life is too short to spend what little family time one gets on running a kid to this activity or that. How about using that time to read a good book, play a video game with your kids or just watch a good movie? You might just get to talking and find out what your kid really thinks about life.
     
  4. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Depends on the coach. I had a t-ball team- years ago. To me the purpose was to learn how to play the game. Winning was secondary. (thought a couple coaches thought winning was # 1)
    After the season, the kids didn't even care about the standings.
     
  5. Tater77

    Tater77 New Member

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    My daughter is 7 and this starts her third year in softball. The girls are out there to have fun, its the parents that get too serious.
     
  6. David Lamb

    David Lamb Active Member

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    My first reaction on reading about the kindergarten "graduation" (before I'd even read your main point about children being made to grow up too soon), was: "Graduating, from a kindergarten? Those Americans must either mean something different by the word 'graduation'*, or this is another case of "adultifying" (new word invented by me, I think :) ) children!"
    * Here, "graduation" is the ceremony where university and other tertiary students are awared their degrees.

    Yes, there are similar things happening here. Secondary schools are now called "colleges". School children are called "students" instead of "pupils". Many primary school children (ages 5-11) have their ears pierced.

    I agree that children need time to develop as children, rather than be forced to become "mini-adults".

    I don't know if participation in competetive sports would reduce drug use or precocious s*x.
     
    #6 David Lamb, May 31, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: May 31, 2011
  7. Berean

    Berean Member
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    You have helped in proving the point.
     
  8. Jkdbuck76

    Jkdbuck76 Well-Known Member
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    Yes, the parents need to let the kids be kids and to enjoy.

    I would NEVER coach a kids league because they'd kick me out after the first game. I love it (sarcasm) when parents won't take their kids to practice, yet expect their kid to play!

    Where I grew up, one of the coaches punched out an umpire! To make it worse, the umpire was in a wheelchair ( I. Kid. You. Not). I grew up in a real redneckish area.

    The bottom line: parents need to stop living vicariously thru their kids and need to understand that their kids will have different interests then they. And the mom who had her injected with botox ought to have herself committed to psychiatric help.
     
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