Play Dates Are Vital To Growth & Development Of Our Children @senseicat
Most people dream of finding "the one" whom they can picture themselves holding hands and growing old with. One thing that I am noticing in our culture is that people seem more connected to their personal devices like their cell phone, tablet, and PC's than people.
With the advent of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, who needs actual real life friends? People seem to be more concerned of their online image and appearance more than actually connecting with others face to face.
Even the majority of communications appear to be via text vs a more personal phone call which will actually take a little more time and perhaps better discussions.
As the tech age continue to thrive, it seems that play dates and peer to peer relationships are on the sidelines to video gaming. The tweens prefer to play video games on Xbox live alone or with their friends online vs. actually participating in an alternate fun activity together.
I believe that it is extremely important to be able to spend time with those close to you at various ages in life. I am concerned that we are becoming more disconnected with people and more connected with electronics.
I feel like I am one of the last parents to frequently invite other children over to our home or to participate in activities like playing outside, swimming, basketball, movies, bowling, or the pool. By the way, when has "playing outside" become considered outdated?
Am I old fashioned or living in an alternate universe? Is this a right of passage for tweens nowadays? My son just told me most of the kids at school pass one another without a friendly greeting.
It depends on the education that parents give children ie, if you let them spend more than 8 hours a day attached to the electronic games will create a daily need to be connected and that clearly influences their behavior , so it's important to have a healthy development for your body and mind
I definitely agree and I believe many parents are allowing their kids to spend too much time on electronics and devices are replacing quality relationships.
I totally agree with you on this post.. Technology and electronics have hindered face-to-face friendship and has affected relationships in recent times. Most people value social media communication these days than paying visits to friends.. Though it may seem outdated, I still admire the old ways of friendship and dating..
Have you also noticed that online education is another way that technology is replacing real world relationships also?
Lol...It's a generational divide. In a room of millennials, silence is replaced by an unexpected lol of something someone reads off their live FB/Twitter stream.
Tweens, middle-school aged youth and young teens, tend to be hormonally charged. Most are sleep deprived, as socialist schools have them showing up by 7 a.m., totally upsetting their growing patterns. Middle and high schools shouldn't begin before 9 a.m...jmho.
Regarding play dates, it's probably just as well. These years tend to be transient, as friends made in middle school are usually replaced with new ones in the high school/college years.
It's smart to be the parent who invites the crowd over. That way you can keep close tabs on what's going on with everybody...
Best regards.
Peace.
You made some excellent observations and during the summer, most of the tweens and teenagers do not wake up til late morning or early afternoon. It is quite an adjustment to their sleep wake cycle when school begins.
lol...Of course, by this I meant totally unobtrusive...Everyone knows the golden sound of silence when that age group realizes an adult is 'loitering' around. Now, if you're a 'cool/hipster' parent who can act like a teenager, and engage them in the wisdom of your years, you're then deemed a 'cool mom'...lol...with the kids saying, "I wish my mom was like your mom!" ;+)
Anyone who has studied sleep patterns of various age groups on the most base level, knows the schedules fly in the face of normalcy, particularly for teens. Jmho, but this is prolly a huge reason for the drop-out rate. Girls tend to fall in line and conform; but, it's more difficult to 'waken' the male who's still mentally asleep in his bed, learning info he, too often, will never use in practical life.
Btw, I am a huge fan of unschooled learning. The 'teacher' has to be disciplined; but, so much of what's important in life is learned by living. A trip to the produce section to learn about weights and calculations, and/or learning the names of various fruits and veggies with actual produce, is a lot more of a learning experience than could ever be found in most classrooms. Worth noting, there are some 5-star teachers who live and breath this role, so definitely not taking anything away from them; just worth saying. I'd say teaching is only the second-hardest paid job to law enforcement. Wow...tragically true in too many instances.
Best regards!
Peace.
As a culture we are getting more and more disconnected. Our youngest son made a point to avoid us when he was in highschool. He just turned 30 and he is married, and we are closer than we have been in years. It just took his wife ,and a little time.......
Resteemed 😀
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I agree that play dates etc are important for children but technology and playdates are not mutually exclusive. Using technology doesn't mean that is all that you ever do, even though quite a few people seem to think it does mean that.
This is an interesting issue to discuss and I don't think this is an overly simple issue. I love technology and I'm social. Technology helps me get stuff done and not forget things through apps like EpicWin which is a rpg based to do list. Apps like forest give me a visual representation of how much I have achieved each day. I would be less productive without these apps as discovering them greatly improved my life. I make lets plays and I intend to still be doing that when I'm Shirley Curry's age (she's in her 80's currently). I also play board games face to face with people. I play video games while talking through a mic to people I know irl and some people I don't know irl (mostly irl friends though). I talk to the same people the same way through a mic as I do face to face. The amount I talk to others doesn't really change too much going from face to face to mic. Stuff like gaming is a good thing to do with friends you have irl.
I intend to play video games with my future children and I intend to show them stuff like how to animate or programming if they are interested and I intend to get them toys like Cubetto and Codeapillar if they are still relevant / around by then to teach them coding logic. I also intend to play outside with them, play with our pets with them, walk our pets with them, and play board games with them and show them cool sciency stuff and teach them how to cook etc. It's not all or nothing. Technology and everything else is not mutually exclusive. It is possible to use technology and do other things. Also movies are no better than video games so participating in watching movies is not better and is actually likely slightly worse as video games build a lot of skills, and there's more opportunities to socialise and talk while playing video games vs watching a movie. I love a good piece of fiction but video games provide more skill building opportunity than movies do.
Also I have worked with children adn a lot of them love playing four square or dodgeball outside or drawing or building awesome stuff with lego. They also like Minecraft. I don't think playing outside has become outdated. My experience with the generation of kids now is that they are awesome individuals and they are actually quite balanced in terms of what activities they do.
Some people are anti-social with technology but they aren't the majority and also, people can also just read a book for ages and not socialise too. That's a social issue not a technology issue. Technology can be used in very social ways. Sometimes it is playing a single player game etc but what's so wrong with that? Individuals having time to themselves is good too and you can't have an issue with someone playing a single player game on their own if you don't have an issue with someone retreating to a quiet place to read or going to have a bath for leisure etc.
A big thing I think people forget is that people can use technology WITH their kids and play video games etc WITH them and they assume it is just a babysitter whereas in reality you have people like me who are excited about doing those things with their children once they have children. I already play both board and video games with my nephew and it is good fun for both of us. Some of the games have a bit of a learning curve (like learning to focus on the team goal in the game rather than running off to deal with something less important) but he's doing well. Technology will be something that will help us a family be more connected, not less.
I personally look forward to showing my future kids lots of things and that includes stuff like video games and technology and programming etc. Their life would more than likely also include playdates. And going to parks etc (depending on age and interest etc).