Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 201 posts

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#131

Post by SebFender »

We got bored and did dangerous things as kids and it was fun. We broke bones and now when we meet we laugh at it and have a bunch of stories.

Last week I showed a few teens how to chop some wood; it took .5 seconds for moms to get up and start freaking out saying it was too dangerous...

An hour later we had a stack of wood and everybody had fun, learned and felt great about a good job done.

People need to relax and let their kids have fun, learn and know what, sometimes get hurt. It's part of a process that is now much too rare...

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#132

Post by watwut »

BobbyJo wrote: post #123
dchftcs wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can learn to take good risks and handle hardship without taking stupid unnecessary risks. One important life lesson is that the only risks worth taking are those that offer corresponding upside - else the expected outcome is ruin. Education wise this means you give them necessary or low-impact risks to take - and let them endure outcomes such as failing a difficult but important project, failing to find love, los…

> You can learn to take good risks and handle hardship without taking stupid unnecessary risks. How do you know what risks are stupid and unnecessary? Kids spent a lot of time outside getting hurt for almost all of human history, and "ruin" wasn't something anyone worried about.

Yes 5 years old used to herd gooses unsupervised. Relatedly, deadly accidents of kids were much more frequent.

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#133

Post by SebFender »

ddmf wrote: post #121
xkbarkar wrote: post #47

I feel the destructive behaviour of bored kids is forgotten a bit. Growing up in the late 70s early 80s we were kicked out of the house until dinner. We did a lot of really dangerous things exploring. Among these, -Playing in storm drains. Inside the narrow tunnels I might add. -Abandoned construction sites. -Railway tracks. Putting things o the rails waiting for the train to see what happened. Everything from rocks…

Reminds me of finding a portapotty and using it to tumble down a hill, or visiting the local quarry when I was 8 and playing around near huge deep pools of strangely coloured liquids. Mid 80s were like the wild wild west.

hahaha so true!

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#134

Post by watwut »

coldtea wrote: post #52
xkbarkar wrote: post #47

I feel the destructive behaviour of bored kids is forgotten a bit. Growing up in the late 70s early 80s we were kicked out of the house until dinner. We did a lot of really dangerous things exploring. Among these, -Playing in storm drains. Inside the narrow tunnels I might add. -Abandoned construction sites. -Railway tracks. Putting things o the rails waiting for the train to see what happened. Everything from rocks…

Most of the things you describe are part of a good childhood and learning boundaries and limits, and testing yourself, and growing harder, and having fun. Sorry, but we had been living like that for ages before helicopter parents became the norm. Kids didn't die in the streets by the truckload, or jump off of roofs to their doom any any number to statistically matter, as this alarmist comment implies.

Kids mortality used to be much higher then it is now.

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#135

Post by raxxorraxor »

xkbarkar wrote: post #47

I feel the destructive behaviour of bored kids is forgotten a bit. Growing up in the late 70s early 80s we were kicked out of the house until dinner. We did a lot of really dangerous things exploring. Among these, -Playing in storm drains. Inside the narrow tunnels I might add. -Abandoned construction sites. -Railway tracks. Putting things o the rails waiting for the train to see what happened. Everything from rocks…

A lot better than the 24/7 surveillance some kids are subjected to. Of course some parenting is needed to keep things in check to some degree.

Easier said than done if it is your kids taking risks, but kids and parents need room to learn and grow.

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#136

Post by raxxorraxor »

VMG wrote: post #127
BobbyJo wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can learn to take good risks and handle hardship without taking stupid unnecessary risks. How do you know what risks are stupid and unnecessary? Kids spent a lot of time outside getting hurt for almost all of human history, and "ruin" wasn't something anyone worried about.

Kids survival was actually pretty poor for most of human history. Probably why the families were much larger

Yes, but that was less because of accidents and more about malnutrition or other health problems.

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#137

Post by throwaway7ahgb »

sim7c00 wrote: post #41
082349872349872 wrote: post #13

> All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. —BP

This is absolutely true, though perhaps hard to understand just put simply like this. Sitting in silence is not the solution, but it will cause a solution to occur within you. Sitting quiety will make you self-reflect. Self reflection will reduce stress and fear. Reduction of stress and less fear is a reduction in problems caused by human error, and negativity towards eachother (due to fear).

I agree, however why is that small issues are so large when trying to sleep at night? A little thought we can reflect on becomes a big problem late at night while trying to sleep.

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#138

Post by watwut »

JR1427 wrote: post #44
Refusing23 wrote: post #9

When my kid is bored he eventually figures out something to do. if he gets less tv or whatever, for a period, he gets deeply invested in lego or drawing or similar

I'm not saying its evil or anything, but on demand TV is IMO not a good thing for kids. It can be a real battle to get my daughter away from Bluey. Back in my day, we had to wait at least a day for the next episode, or often a week, or more! TV was actually "seasonal", which it no longer is. I firmly believe that humans need seasons, i.e. periods of time that are different from each other, either summer, winter etc,…

I agree that nonstop access is not good.

But I also think that current ability to see the series at once and then be done with that is strictly superior over past "episode once a week" schedule. First, it leads to way more interesting shows, but also it affects my life much less.

The tv schedule used to rule peoples days, they would try to be at home for the show, they would stop socializing and what not just to see the show.

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#139

Post by coldtea »

watwut wrote: post #134
coldtea wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the things you describe are part of a good childhood and learning boundaries and limits, and testing yourself, and growing harder, and having fun. Sorry, but we had been living like that for ages before helicopter parents became the norm. Kids didn't die in the streets by the truckload, or jump off of roofs to their doom any any number to statistically matter, as this alarmist comment implies.

Kids mortality used to be much higher then it is now.

For totally different reasons. We're not talking about street urchins in Victorian era or pre-modern medicine child mortality.

Re: Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

#140

Post by watwut »

coldtea wrote: post #139
watwut wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids mortality used to be much higher then it is now.

For totally different reasons. We're not talking about street urchins in Victorian era or pre-modern medicine child mortality.

The deadly accidents were a thing the way they basically are not a thing now.
Post reply on HN