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Tuesday, 5 June 2007

The New Age of Ten

This OR

As the summer draws close I am reminded of a time when we were footloose and fancy free. At around the age of 10 the summer holidays meant EVERYTHING. Everything throughout the year was a build up to the summer holidays. It was a time of fun, adventure, friends, ice-cream, mud pies, ant farms (and of course the odd ant -sun-magnifying glass experiment). I remember us (my siblings) waking up each morning with nothing but fun and adventure on our minds. Family excursions were actually something of an inconvenience at that time. We went scrumping for apples, built secret dens and clubhouses; there was even a place which all I can describe as, was a giant crater in the middle of nowhere where we would take our bikes and scramble from the top to the bottom at full speed (the thought of it today fill me with dread). We went for long walks, discovered new places - places we thought only we knew about. We made new friends, lost friends, made up with them again. We went home only for meals, bathroom breaks and twilight. We WERE the famous five! We had not a care in the world, but more importantly - neither did our parents. These were not neglectful parents who didn't care where their children were or what they were up to, these were parents who were confident that their children were safe; in a community they felt secure in - and were happy that their children were getting fresh air, forging social relationships and enjoying a safe healthy environment. So what about our 10 +/-'s today? We are all aware of how the world has changed and it would be inconceivable for most of us to allow our children to get up to the things we did as children - as much as I would love them to have the childhood I had. So what we have emerging is a new kind of ten year old. A ten (+/-) year old that has to stay much closer to home and constantly under the watchful eye of a significant elder. A discussion on BBC Radio 4 about this today suggested that children will ultimately suffer developmentally and emotionally as a result of not being able to creatively play, hang out with friends and enjoy freedom in their neighborhoods without the threat of the constant dangers we hear about everyday in the headlines.
So how do we help our new generation of 10's not to become couch potatoes, computer dependent home -bodies who lack the enriching experience of special friendships and lifelong memories?
Lucky for us as humans we naturally evolve and children adapt to their surroundings without being aware that the are lacking in any way; the problem is - WE KNOW! And we often don't feel great about it. We know that there is so much more. Even though many of us are very active with our kids, we spend quality time, do great trips, give them the best education, the best stuff - there's still more.
Are parents being overprotective? Should we allow our children more independence and freedom?
Tomorrow I'll be discussing all of the above plus I'll be making some suggestions about how to maximize childhood experiences given the new constraints we have to deal with. I'll be looking at how new traits have developed within this age group, how being more home/technology based is possibly producing a more analytical child - is that so bad?And most importantly how to strike a balance. See you next time.

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