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Children should be allowed to get bored (2013)

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

#151
post #142
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 firmly believe that humans need seasons, i.e. periods of time that are different from each other, either summer, winter etc This is actually a very weird part about living in Los Angeles. It doesn’t feel like time passes when the weather is always the same.

It sure beats having “seasons” and essentially having 6 months of the year being a complete waste because it’s too cold to do things outside the house.

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

#152
post #126

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…

Yet over these experiences you socialized, bonded, explored, got scared, risked and got away with it, promised not to tell parents, had general fun and discovered things you would have not otherwise. Any of these beats becoming a rotbrain in front of YouTube kids for hours.

> Any of these beats becoming a rotbrain in front of YouTube kids for hours.

Technically, the jury is still out on this. I don't think anyone's done any kind of study of how childhood YouTube brainrot affects their long term outlook during adulthood, simply because YouTube brainrot is too new. For what it's worth, if I had to bet money, I'd agree with you that "socialized, bonded, explored, etc." is better than YouTube, but I don't think this has been proven yet. It's just a gut feeling.

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

#153
post #77

For my own kids when they are bored there is a flow of requests. First they ask if they can watch TV. Then they ask if they play video games. Then they ask if they can goto a friends house that they like. Then they ask if they can see a neighbor kid who they are kinda meh about. If I keep saying no to all the distractions they typically will enter a complainy phase about how they are bored, but after a bit of boredom…

> Then they ask if they can goto a friends house that they like. The friends house where they will get TV or video games.

Thankfully the various parents are all pretty good about restricting screen time.

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

#154
post #31
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Words means things. If I ask you for something again and again, you then provides it for me as a gift for christmas, using the word "forcing" is massively inappropriate. It is not just a question of perspective. It is quite literally a question of what word means.

And being a parent means you are responsible for somebody. Yeah, maybe you don't "force" them, you just create offers they can't refuse.

> Yeah, maybe you don't "force" them, you just create offers they can't refuse.

Agreed - it's not forcing. Not all things that are bad are forcing.

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

#155

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

All of social engineering and electric boddhism aims to get humanity into a room to be content with a slightly glowing stone..

> humanity into a room to be content with a slightly glowing stone

best get used to it

not much else to do in-between here and Alpha Centauri :)

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

#156
post #132

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.

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

We obviously aren't going to achieve 0 unless we lock every kid on earth up in a padded room, which we aren't doing, so "more" or "less" is fine if the reward is worth the risk. Which is exactly the discussion being had right now.

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

#157
post #44

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 - it would be good to be able to set Netflix to show two episodes and then stop.

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

#158
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 - it would be good to be able to set Netflix to show two episodes and then stop.

there's a setting to stop auto playing after one, but not for two episodes

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

#159
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

We obviously aren't going to achieve 0 unless we lock every kid on earth up in a padded room, which we aren't doing, so "more" or "less" is fine if the reward is worth the risk. Which is exactly the discussion being had right now.

I am not saying current US tradeoff is necessary ideal. But, when people argue by "human history" they should not ignore what actually happened during that history. Because as of now, kids ARE better off then they generally were for majority of human history.

The gooses thing was memory of my grandmother. It is not some kind of distant medieval history, it was the norm around WWII.

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

#160

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…

It’s part of life. Helicoptering your kids is as bad as letting them run around after midnight with “the wrong types”. There’s a middle ground. We have swung too far into safety. It’s fine to push your kid to find a hobby or interest but a kid with half hour to half hour schedule every day is going to be miserable. They aren’t small adults. I’ve seen too many young adults with low self esteem, overthinking and afraid to socialize, waiting on texts or emails for hours or days for an answer instead of knowing their value and just calling after giving a reasonable response time; or simple saying “well f that, I’ll call somebody else”
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