Playing With Your Children

[youbet]

You got meals? Damn it! I just knew I was getting ripped off!

 

[ladelfina]

I think that would be great.. that's how we grew up.. playing unsupervised around the neighborhood. Or rather, let's say.. lightly supervised since we were usually in someone's backyard, rec room, or just out in the (lightly-trafficked) street.

Problem is, today, if you did that with your kid, who would they play with? The streets are deserted in my sister's neighborhood, even though I know almost every house has one or more kids. They're all being shuttled to organized activities or being kept inside.. thus, the parents HAVE to play with them more; they have no spontaneous games or playmates of their own.

 

[Outtahere]

That's the way it was in my neighborhood too ladelfina, we were outside all day no matter what season, had to be home before the streetlights came on and usually had to be called for dinner because we were so busy playing. We had the most cool stuff in our backyard so that's where we all played but we also used the neighbors yard across the street for baseball games or the horse pasture next to my friends house. We built forts in the woods and tree houses, organized our own parades, rode our bikes everywhere, went ice skating on the pond one street over, went sliding on the big hill at the end of the street, went fishing in the stream down the road. We knew the old man down the street was werid and stayed away from him and we knew which mothers were home and would take care of any injuries.

I know there are kids in my neighborhood, I see them in the back seats of the SUVS that drive by my house, I feel bad for them.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

That's the way it was in my neighborhood too ladelfina, we were outside all day no matter what season, had to be home before the streetlights came on and usually had to be called for dinner because we were so busy playing. We had the most cool stuff in our backyard so that's where we all played but we also used the neighbors yard across the street for baseball games or the horse pasture next to my friends house. We built forts in the woods and tree houses, organized our own parades, rode our bikes everywhere, went ice skating on the pond one street over, went sliding on the big hill at the end of the street, went fishing in the stream down the road. We knew the old man down the street was werid and stayed away from him and we knew which mothers were home and would take care of any injuries.

I know there are kids in my neighborhood, I see them in the back seats of the SUVS that drive by my house, I feel bad for them.

This was my childhood as well. Just about exactly. When I was not out on adventures with
my Dad/Granddad, they just turned me loose. Being a boy, when I got to my teens they didn't know when I would show up (This was rural Illinois
in the 50s). Never seemed to be a problem. They didn't ask, I didn't
tell. Just came and went as I pleased.

JG

 

[Gumby]

..

 

[Nords]

[
I've been looking for a good Ham Francisco recipe...

 

[yelnad]

My mom taught me to sew and we spent a lot of time "playing" that way. We still spend time sewing when we are together!

Dad would teach us archery and help us with our treehouses and forts. A lot of our time playing with him was gardening and helping him to build stuff and learning to power tools.

 

[Outtahere]

Yeland, that's what I remember about my grandmother, she taught me how to bake. To this day I still remember watching her and helping her and I can still whip up a cake or pastry from scratch in no time.