Silly Business

This summer our big plans in this household are to get down the the very serious business of silly business. As the resident grandmother in charge of one very active twelve year old girl -- summer time plans are not anything that I take lightly. Summertime fun has taken on a life of it's own, because for the most part, it's the only eleven weeks of the year where I don't have to worry.

That concern, involves my own eldest granddaughter and all of America's children today, because I just don't see enough silliness in these times for them to just be a kid. Many kids today seem to be lacking something in a country where we pride ourselves in giving our children "everything" -- time to play.

Recently, Anna Marie Bowman, here on hubpages, wrote an excellent article on the lack of critical thinking in today's society. There's an epidemic of people who don't know how to think for themselves. That got me to thinking and questioning about exactly where such problems begin -- I've concluded that in part it stems from the realities of our now modern day childhoods.

Being older, I see that this vital ability begins on the playground, both in childhood and extend to play as adults. It's there, we find we have our own ideas. It's there that creativity emerges. Early childhood play teaches abstract thinking before the world sucks that away. It's in childhood that we should be realizing that we can think for ourselves. It's all about fostering creativity and spontaneity, both found in the play time of children.

Second only to schools that fail to teach and promote critical thinking in the classroom activities, it's the playground -- or the lack of time on it, that is getting in the way of tomorrow's adults learning to think for themselves. Far too many schools are eliminating recess or severely limited recess during the school day.

Play time, silly play time needs to be put back in our schools and our homes. It's the stuff that makes the dreams that do come true -- live and breath. It's one more key endangered part of a well remembered childhood, for growing well-rounded thinking adults.

I've read that the average kid today has an appalling less than a dozen hours of free playtime per week. I would agree, that's a fair statistic, as that's certainly true of my eldest granddaughter during the school year. The value of free play cannot be ignored and needs to be taken seriously.

She attends a fast paced private school where homework is about doubt that of pubic school students. Two to three hours of homework every night, plus weekend and holiday assignments leave her little time or energy to just be a kid.

The price that she and other children are at risk of paying are:

• Higher rates of childhood obesity
• Anxiety disorders
• Attention-deficit disorder
• Depression
• Loss of fantasy and role-playing with peers
• Loosing valuable skills in social face-to-face interactions
• Loss of self-confidence
• Not developing decision making skills

One of the biggest things to happen to play time is -- knee jerk media fueled fear -- Many of us worry (and maybe rightfully so) about:

• Abduction
• Molestation
• Injury

So, we don't allow our children to be outdoors without a good measure of supervision, and since supervision requires our presence -- they spend a lot of time indoors because most of us can't are aren't willing to spend time outdoors with them.

Instead of playing outdoors, children are watching TV, playing video games, using the Internet, texting, and talking on cell phones. While all of these things in moderation are necessary and appropriate in our electronic ruled world -- the excesses in time spent on them, far too often is at a high price to their childhood. Electronic friends are a poor substitute for real face-to-face play.

This is an aspect of modern life that I understand all too well. We have an exceptionally beautiful young girl, who is at twelve years old more physically mature, than some high school students. Out in public, grown men ogle her. It's unnerving, because they have no idea that she is only twelve.

Then, there is the factor of living in a gated community that has had no less than ten home invasions in seven months, some of them during broad daylight. Add, the helicopter swat teams have been in our development twice in the last six months, looking for gang suspects who committed armed robberies at the mall, less than 4 blocks away. It's hard to forget about about the homeless people who drift through and stay the wooded portions of our upscale community.

Then, there's mother nature, of whom I've a very big fan. Her charges are also our neighbors. We're talking several hundred pound wild boars, wild coyotes, copperhead snakes, rattlesnakes, and alligators -- all seen on a daily basis. With some of them come rabies, with others possible death in an unwanted encounter.

It would all be a little different if our development was occupied and not a ghost town development. There is no safety in other children, because there are no other children except a few toddlers.

My childhood days of largely unsupervised outdoor play with friends and even my children's days held such play time and socialization. That isn't a reality in her world. Her's is a world that is largely deemed "not safe."

Between scheduled lessons, tutoring, extra curricular activities, and supervised sports -- just what amount of time is left over after a child's non-school hours is often a struggle for most American kids. During the school year, a typical day with my granddaughter involves:

• Getting up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for school
• Arriving at school at 7:00 a.m.
• Getting out of school at 3:20 p.m.
• Traveling and arriving home at 4:00 p.m. Then, grabbing a snack, and getting ready for either lessons, tutoring, or sports.
• 5:00 p.m. Back out the door to outside activities
• 7:00 p.m. Back home for dinner
• 7:45 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. homework (often taking until later), shower, and bedtime

What about weekends? Every other weekend she must accompany her mother to care for her invalid great-grandmother. Doesn't leave a lot of time left over for fun or friends.

I think as a society we are guilty of putting too much pressure to succeed too early on our children. Yes, their education is very important. Yes, schools (education) here in America are generally lacking and failing our kids miserably.

Parents have become more self-conscious and far more competitive and often do an over-kill when it comes to pressure to acquire academic skills and success.

Schools are also hampered by rules and regulations and the need to pass state standardized tests, like the FCAT here in Florida. Not much time for anything else, especially play time. It's stopped being about real learning and now is about high test scores.

Other parents and some schools, are focused on organized sports as a principal free time activity. This is risky play, if it's too much, or too early in a child's development. It almost guarantees burnout for the kids who do well in sports and frustration for the kids who are less coordinated or skilled.

I have no answers, except to hopefully make other parents and grandparents more aware of what we could possibly being doing to the next generations. Not much I can do during the school year -- but, one of the joys of summer time is figuring out ways we can put the silliness and fun of playtime back in childhood for at least the eleven weeks of summer.