Is Play Dead?

How does your childhood compare to that of your children?  Do they play as much?  Today, 40,000 schools have eliminated recess and because of legal issues, playgrounds just aren't the same anymore and are covered with shredded tires or sand for boo-boo protection.

Children are being raised with less freedom, more protection from germs, more boundaries and extreme structure. 

Are we raising whimps that can't struggle on their own? Are we hovering and managing and organizing play to the extreme detriment of our children?

Psychology Today goes into the question about our society and culture in an article titled, A Nation of Wimps. The subject of helicopter parents, hovering with hand sanitizers and the 24/7 connectivity of cell phones and the structured lifestyle is something to think about. Is this healthy?  Are children not learning independence? Is this related to the increase in depression among children? According to the article:

"College, it seems, is where the fragility factor is now making its greatest mark. It's where intellectual and developmental tracks converge as the emotional training wheels come off. By all accounts, psychological distress is rampant on college campuses. It takes a variety of forms, including anxiety and depression—which are increasingly regarded as two faces of the same coin—binge drinking and substance abuse, self-mutilation and other forms of disconnection. The mental state of students is now so precarious for so many that, says Steven Hyman, provost of Harvard University and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, "it is interfering with the core mission of the university."    

"The severity of student mental health problems has been rising since 1988, according to an annual survey of counseling center directors."

Materialism and Child Development was the subject of an online discussion on Washington Post's site with Madeline Levine, author of the new book, The Price of Privilege.  She says the situation isn't healthy for kids and fits the definition of a crisis.  Letting kids struggle and figure things out for themselves is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children, Levine says, and not material things.

At one point you think about Adam Walsh and the new legislation that will protect our society from pedophiles.  These scary things -- children being kidnapped and abused -- were just not things I worried about as a child.  But as a parent, I did.  Where are we headed with this?  What can we do?

Comments

[Laundry Woman]

I'm struggling with this, too. I'm a product of over-protection myself, so imagine the brain contortions I'm going through trying to figure out how to manage parenting. And I even let them use the public bathrooms without me.... which I think is kinda risky... and go off the high dive. .. But not ride their bikes around the block and not walk to the store... Too many drug dealers around here.

But they climb very high trees and ride bikes without helmets (yah, bad mommy)- they keep growing out of them.