what are we doing to our children?

This news item is so sad. The part which saddened me the most:

Mike Greenaway, the director of Play Wales told the report's authors: "Possibly the most significant finding, which perhaps should not come as a surprise, is that when asked to choose between their own childhood and childhood today, all the adult groups said that they would keep their own childhood because of the 'freedom to roam' they had as children.

"For many of us this must resonate with our own experience. Perhaps, if we reflected upon this as a society, we might begin to welcome the sight of children outside in our communities, just being and playing - rather than expecting that they must always be 'gainfully engaged'.

" 

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old woman, when I was 10, during the summer months, the only rules were that I had to have breakfast before I went out, had to be home no later than 12.40 on the dot for dinner; after helping clear the table, I was free to do as I wished- and back in again by 5.40pm for tea. I was allowed to 'play out' in the street next to ours until 8.30pm when I was expected to be home to get ready for bed, no later than 9pm.

In reality it meant I spent mornings at the local library, or swimming; afternoons inevitably 'up the common' (i.e. Wandsworth Common) or, on a Red Bus Rover day out with friends, no adults (aged 10!!) touring London for the day, which city we subsequently  knew inside out and if anything went 'wrong' it never occurred to us that we wouldn't be able to sort it out ourselves; and the evenings were spent playing out in the street with the kids who lived there, engaged in hopscotch, or skipping, or donkey or any other number of games involving throwing a rubber ball in the air. My brother usually wandered (slightly more dangerously), down to the River at Battersea Bridge, to fish. Sundays were different in that we were expected to go with Dad to visit our nearest set of grandparents in the mornings, but often went out to Clapham Common in the afternoons with Mum. By age 12, we were attending test matches and Wimbledon and show jumping unaccompanied.

In contrast, I learned recently of a 9 year old boy who doesn't have time to visit his cousins, because he spends his weekends being ferried by parents between structured activities.

Give me the olden days, any time.  We didn't have a phone, or a fridge (no kidding) and only 3 channels on a rented black and white tv which took ages to 'warm up', but I'd prefer it to kiddy life today.