Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Times are a'changin'

Remember when you were a kid? OK, let me rephrase that... For those of us who's childhood was more than 20 years ago... Remember when we were kids?

When I was a kid you couldn't keep my ass in the house. My brother either. We were always outside. Maybe that's because if we were in arms length of our biological Mother, she could find some reason to backhand us. But I suspect it was just what kids did back then. No matter the reason, if we weren't in school or bed, we were outside! In any weather, blistering hot Va Beach summers, or in 3 feet of snow. The only exception was if it rained.
It could be that it was just the neighborhood we lived in... but it seemed as though every time there was a thunderstorm the power went out. This was a great opportunity for my brother and I. Hide and seek was one of our favorite things to play while the power was out.

Yesterday it was made even more clear to me that today's children have no imagination. Or maybe it's just my children. See we were hit with another massive thunderstorm yesterday. And though it is rare for the power to go out these days, yesterday it did. And it stayed out for more than 3 hours.
Instantly my children were "Booooored". I made suggestions to them of things they might do. I didn't suggest hide and seek though. The storm was actually so bad, I asked that they come stay in the living room with me, even before the power went out.
It was like pulling teeth to get DQ to play a board game with Itty Bit. But guess what? When they finally got around to playing something they actually had fun.


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They each took turns spinning, while the other followed the instructions to endure the most ridiculous poses. Once they fell over, they would switch. All I could think about is my own childhood and playing in the dark.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, I live in fear of being home with all the kids during a power outage! Looks like you did a great job improvising, though! Way to go, Mom! :)

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  2. The same thing with me when I was a kid. Back in the "dark ages" we were always out on our bikes or playing on the swing set or making up new games. Inside? At night, yeah, but not during the day much. I agree that today's kids lack imagination. Sure we played board games a lot, but we also made up games, even going so far as to play roulette with the barbeque grill (?). Kids today have everything made up for them. Too bad!

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  3. I love power outage when I was kid which means everyone hang out outside their homes, my friends with guitar and we sing along, we also gather around the lit candle and tell stories. This was back in the Philippines then, I am not sure what they do now when they do have power outage there. lol


    Stopping by from SITS.

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  4. Yes it's true. I believe that the brains in children are even wired differently now. They are so technologically geared at such a young age. We didn't have that, ya know?

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  5. VB summers are hot but the only 3 feet of snow I remember was the blizzard of 80. ;)

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  6. Yep, that is the winter of which I speak. It was a total blast!

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