Childhood

Childhood in America changes from generation to generation. Time makes it such. Our grandparents did not grow up in the world that our parents did. We did not grow up in our parent’s world. Our children will not grow up like we did.

Having said this, children today are growing up much too fast. Through no fault of their own. We are not allowing them to be children. We are treating them more like adults. The world and its adult situations are becoming a part of their lives sooner than they were when we were growing up.

We do not know if this is better for them or worse. We do know that it is different.

There was a time when children lived a life of play in which adults were not involved. It was a world of getting up in the morning, finding friends and doing whatever came to mind that day. It could be playing ball. It could be riding bicycles. It could be going swimming if there was an available place to do so. If one could not go outside, it could be reading books or playing board games.

Parents told children to find something to do. Or the parents would find something for them to do. This would usually entail chores that the child did not want to do.

And as children, we found it. We did not have all the technology that today’s youth have. We did not need it. We used creativity and talent to make our childhoods fun and productive.

When it came to school, no one really thought about what their life’s work would be while in elementary or even middle school. Our teachers told us to study hard and learn the basics we needed to survive. Along the way, they taught simple common sense. There was less emphasis on higher education and more on simply learning about who we were and what talents we had. Then pushing us towards using those talents.

We learned right from wrong through life lessons and the mistakes we made. Parents and adults let us make mistakes. Our parents did not want us to be perfect nor expected it. They simply saw us as children. We were not stupid, bad, or unteachable. We were just kids. And with kids you never know what you are going to get from day to day.

In childhoods past, children were little people that needed guidance to become young adults, then adults. Today, it seems as we may be skipping the child part and taking them straight to young adult.

Maybe it is time for us to let our children be children. Trust them to grow and guide them along the way.

Maybe it will slow down the process of them being tossed into the real world sooner than they should be.