I grew up playing outside, so what?
I remember my mother used to call me at the top of her lungs because she wanted us all to be at the dining table to have our meals as a family. It was past 5 in the afternoon and the sky was dimming and I had to come inside. When I came back, I saw my clothes wrapped in a blanket sitting outside our door. I tried opening the door but it was locked, I knocked frantically and my heart was racing and I was asking myself, “What did I do this time?” My older sister came to the door (not opening it at all) and telling me, “We are going to eat dinner now and mom said that you have to look for another house where you can eat your own dinner!” I could clearly remember how I turned pale and didn’t know what to do. Of course, I cried...a lot! I had learned my lesson not to play outside so long and that I had to keep track of time so that I could come back and not see my clothes displayed outside our house again.
That was us, children, 25 something plus years ago...we played outside with our friends and cousins. We climbed on trees, dug dirt because we pretended that we were making a cave and we collected rocks, sticks and mud to make a house but we couldn’t make it stand for so long. Those were fun days and I wouldn’t even exchange them for anything even if it could have caused me to become homeless because I was evicted by my family.Those days were important because I felt so alive. I used to get so excited every weekend because it was time for me to go outside again and of course, get messy! In the end, those days were memorable and I value these events up until today.
Working with young children gives me more time to reflect on how the world is different from “those days”. I just wonder if children are really having fun and making memories that can be remembered for a lifetime. I saw a post on Facebook the other day about parents trying to convince their children to play outside because they were so glued to their screens, video games and television. I am not saying that I grew up more secure and comfortable but all I am saying is that for me, children are truly having less time to play outside. With all the gadgets, we have today, who would even want to go out and be sweaty under the heat or get frozen in the coldness of winter?
I don’t have the right answers for these issues of today and I don’t want to sound that I know everything about rearing children. I am actually looking for answers and more information about the use of technology and how it affects the next generation right now.
On the other hand, I can tell that from my nieces and my youngest sister (who is now 20), the generation of today has become more exposed to information. It is fascinating to see how they seem so knowledgeable about things that I couldn’t even find in Google search 15 years ago. For example, my sister talked about this French artist and discussed his life history and how he became famous amazed me, because she wasn’t even an art major, and she didn’t even have anyone around her who is French and never went to France at all. I inquired, “How do you know about all these things?” She nonchalantly replied, “Internet”.
There’s definitely an upside in this information age. How I wish back then, that we could have had access to the same information available online because for sure I would have been glued to the computer and just voraciously read anything that I could get my eye on.
But there’s a reason why I experienced the days of my youth, playing outdoors. When i look back, I value these moments because I learned how to clean cuts and scratches every time I fell from the tree. I learned how to clean up after myself before heading back home so as not to get reprimanded more and I learned how to build/create something out of nothing through being creative with natural materials. In the end, it taught me something special and these things cannot be read or researched online. They are life skills. Skills that we need to build a society wherein each person is tasked to contribute and thrive at the same time.
Hence, when I was having a chat with Shelley a few minutes ago, she gave me an idea to write this article. In the future, she will be posting articles and write ups about how society has become digitized and I am so excited to learn and read more of what she thinks about the world of today for our children.
Photo by:
https://travellesque.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/dsc2267.jpg
