The Modern Child

The Modern Child ©

By

Michael Casey

We hear a lot about kids in today’s world, the stresses and strains, I think I wrote a small piece about it a few weeks ago. I was talking to a neighbour and afterwards I thought I might talk a bit more to you all.

They say Saturday’s Child works hard for a living and so I do. But what of all our other kids whenever or however they were born. In the past we were hunted out by our parents, go out this fine day is what my own dad used to say. Or we’d go to the park and play on the witch’s hat and the swings and roundabouts in Summerfield Park. We might even explore the neigbouring roads where a real witch was supposed to live. We might even be tempted or double dared to knock on a witch’s door.

All these are the simple pleasures of yesterday year, my sister would read and read, and because she sat on top of the fire she ended up with the criss-cross marks of the fireguard on her legs. Or she’d sit over the pallin by Mrs Patrick’s hedge with the cat for company as she read. I too grew up reading by the yard. Then when we got a radio, the radio was king, and then when we got that Bush Radio, Radio4 came, and that after 20 years led me to writing.

But what of today’s kids? Its wifi everything, and in UK it is a Billion Pound industry, and over in Japan you can study games at University level as does the son of a friend in Osaka. But and you knew the but was coming, what happens then? People overdose on technology. I spent hours a day, and years to decades just talking to my dad. And it was because I tried to be a good son that all the time spent with my dad led to me finding a wife, when I could have ended up on the shelf with all the other spinsters.

So today we all have toys galore. I have one on the desk in front of me, an old phone that I’ve filled with music. So it’s useful to me as a music machine, not that I ever use the phone much. However our children and grandchilden ARE addicted. You can see a family together in a room who are not together at all. Physically they are in the same space but emotionally they are not connected at all. You know it’s true, so pause to think about it. Or families are islands floating in separate seas scattered like cushions in different places in different rooms.

Families don’t connect, not for real, the Oxo advert is just that an advert. So if the family is just a group of islands how can you expect unity, how can you have dignity or harmony. The child will just play on its wifi connected toys without any connection to mum or dad, or grannie, assuming grannie hasn’t been shoved into care to be ignored, and unloved.

A bleak picture? How true is it? How often do you talk to your kids, really talk, how often do you sit down as a family to watch tv together, not even once a week, or once a month. Ok, just at Christmas to impress the rich uncle so he drops a fat envelope of cash on the table. My kids were never allowed all these electronic toys till a few years ago, which means instead they learnt to draw, thanks to all their uncles and aunts donating crayons. Being able to draw is a great skill, I wish I could draw, rather than just draw cartoons with words.

Toys are great, my friend Derek who is 60 today, we used to use a paperclip as a car and go up and down the brickwork as roads with Leprechauns as passengers, see we had imagination, as we were in the playground of Saint Patrick’s. I was also the horse while he was the rider as we had jousting fights in the playground, I carried him 8 times around the playground to see how strong I was.

Old century I can hear kids say, put it build imagination, what is built nowadays, big thumbs and short tempers. Yes enjoy your toys, but there must be self control. And if there is no self control, then there is only addiction. Middle class newspapers say, I have a contract with my child, no internet at the dinner table. Can people please grow up, my mother would have thrown a phone down the toilet, many mothers would. Apple would be happy too, as it would prove their new phone was crap proof.

Eat when you eat, sleep when you sleep. Put a lock on the wi-fi, so downtime is downtime. And yes PASSword is not a very good password, be sensible. A child should not be able to use their toy after bedtime, and if they do take action immediately. My mother would have thrown a bucket of water on me, though in today’s world that would be called cruelty. So just hide the rechargers instead, but best of all switch the wifi off.

Social media at a young age is dangerous too, so don’t allow it, all the hype is just that hype. Common sense should replace laziness, it is parental laziness, or just plain old lack of love. I won’t bore you all more, because it is a 2 second no brainer. You control the wifi, not the child, if they want electronic time, then they must work for it. And loving your child means you bother to spend time with them, otherwise they think the wifi is the only thing that does loves them.