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Child Item

The Good Old Days

chops018

Were kids really better off without Xboxes, Playstations and iPhones etc?

Going outside on a summers day and not coming home until dark and you couldn't contact them.

Kids being properly punished if they did something wrong.

Basically do you think technology has ruined childhoods for kids like you hear so many people saying these days?

I think it's good that we are developing but maybe it does impact a little too much on kids lives, but hey, we have to change right?

What you guys think?

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paddydriver

Trigger Happy wrote: »

My dad used to say the same thing to me in the 80s.
For fck sake, he had to piss on his feet to keep them warm in Monaghan in the 30s.....how could those have been better days?

Funny that.. My Dad was growing up in Monaghan in the 30's too and used to tell me how their p!ss would freeze before it hit the ground, let alone get as far as warming his feet:P

lulu1

The Backwards Man wrote: »

When I was a kid I used to be dragged to the bog when I would rather lie in the house watching The Dukes Of Hazzard and The Fall Guy.

Nowadays you'd have me drag me out of the bog.

Yea but when you were a kid you were doing it for someone else now you are doing it for yourself

[Deleted User]

I see kids playing outside. And I hear overprivileged adults complaining about the noise of them playing. If kids play indoors, people complain about sedentary kids. If kids play outdoors, people complain about noisy kids. If kids are polite people complain about them being precocious, if kids are rude they aren't getting enough slaps. Basically, kids can do no right.

Mister Vain

A lot of parents are afraid to let their kids go out now though. Back in my day we used to roam wild and free till all hours and we'd have a savage appetite by the time we got home.

lulu1

i think kids depend far too much on tecnology even for homework instead of thinking out a problem they will run and google it. As for i phones some of these days it is going to go through the window.

[Deleted User]

Mister Vain wrote: »

A lot of parents are afraid to let their kids go out now though. Back in my day we used to roam wild and free till all hours and we'd have a savage appetite by the time we got home.

True, but people were more tolerant of kids then. Now people complain if a baby cries on a bus or as I witnessed last week, kids kick a ball around a park and make kid noises.

Paranoia and moral panic about paedophiles and abductions as promoted by sensationalist press and 24 hour news channels trying to fill air time doesn't help either.

SweetChaos

Better than sending them down mines or up chimneys I suppose

Mister Vain

Candie wrote: »

True, but people were more tolerant of kids then. Now people complain if a baby cries on a bus or as I witnessed last week, kids kick a ball around a park and make kid noises.

Paranoia and moral panic about paedophiles and abductions as promoted by sensationalist press and 24 hour news channels trying to fill air time doesn't help either.

I think there was always people who were intolerant when it came to kids.

The paedophile hysteria is a big problem now alright.

Pumpkinseeds

There needs to be a better balance. Letting kids spend so much time indoors isn't healthy. I was a 70's kid and we spent a lot of time outdoors. Today's generation are the 'me generation', often narcissistic and with poor social skills. They've never known life without mobile phones, ipods, computers and general high tech gadgets. You know things are bad when heart disease in teens is becoming an issue.

Eutow

DColeman wrote: »

21st century music is far superior to 20th century music, particularly pop, kids have it far far better these days. Much better to be a 21st century kid than a 20th century one, which by in large completely sucked.

Really? Who would this be then? Rihanna, McBusted, One Direction, the latest Cowell cr@p? Pure sh!t The only thing from this load of rubbish you have come out with that makes sense is that kids have it far easier these days - but of course what I'm thinking is more than likely completely different from your thoughts - in that it is easier to search and find new music these days thanks to youtube, spotify and sound cloud. Back before the internet you used to have to watch Top of the Pops, MTV, or leave the radio on and tape stuff.

[Deleted User]

Mister Vain wrote: »

I think there was always people who were intolerant when it came to kids.

The paedophile hysteria is a big problem now alright.

Gotta fill that airtime and compete against the plethora of news press, and there's nothing Joe Public likes more than to be terrified of something. Muslims, interest rates, paedophiles, global warming. All the good stuff.

Just to add to that, I think younger adults have a fair sense of entitlement that older generations didn't have, and that tolerance levels have really bottomed out when it comes to many things. Older people, children, any kind of minor deprivation or discomfort, from what I know from my job and what I hear anecdotally, people were much more stoic about minor infringements on their personal comfort in previous generations. Now people do their best to avoid sharing a double seat on public transport, and believe even in parks that the sound of children playing is an unacceptable infringement on their comfort.

mrsbyrne

DColeman wrote: »

21st century music is far superior to 20th century music, particularly pop, kids have it far far better these days. Much better to be a 21st century kid than a 20th century one, which by in large completely sucked.

Of coruse. Bowie singing Life on Mars is like an advertising jingle beside Smiley Cyrus screaming about a wrecking ball.

o1s1n

Candie wrote: »

Now people do their best to avoid sharing a double seat on public transport, and believe even in parks that the sound of children playing is an unacceptable infringement on their comfort.

Ah I dunno, I think there's a lot of rose tinted glasses wearing going on there too.

Kids annoy adults, they always have. It's just the way things are. I can remember having fierce trouble with some of our more elderly neighbours when I was a kid by simply playing football in a field beside our estate.

As for sharing seats on public transport, there's a 1 seat distance rule. All commuters with manners and respect for their fellow commuters know this :pac:

Venus In Furs

My mother always likes to talk about how there would be frost INSIDE the windows, and they collected rainwater for a bath.

The stuff about kids spending too much time on the couch has been talked about since the advent of TV/computer games. There are people in their 20s now, who would have been the subject of the very same discourse in the 1990s/2000s, that talk about the good old days.

That said, the concern probably gets more prevalent with each generation.

whatdoicare

My childhood was **** in the 80's, I suffered from extreme shyness and found it very difficult to make friends and I was bullied.
I was incredibly lonely. People tended to and still do talk over me.

If I had like kids today have id have been so happy, a whole world open to me with different people who understand where I'm coming from, there's far more support for people online than there is in the real world.

When I was a kid my world was so small and isolated, I'm very glad it wont be like that for my kids! I wouldn't go back to my childhood, no way!

Jamsiek

DColeman wrote: »

21st century music is far superior to 20th century music, particularly pop, kids have it far far better these days. Much better to be a 21st century kid than a 20th century one, which by in large completely sucked.

Seriously think about what you said there and have a word with yourself.

Littlekittylou

chops018 wrote: »

Were kids really better off without Xboxes, Playstations and iPhones etc?

Going outside on a summers day and not coming home until dark and you couldn't contact them.

Kids being properly punished if they did something wrong.

Basically do you think technology has ruined childhoods for kids like you hear so many people saying these days?

I think it's good that we are developing but maybe it does impact a little too much on kids lives, but hey, we have to change right?

What you guys think?

I have quit twitter now need to quit boards and FB. Or even just twice a week. It's a time vacuum! I was good this week though and got out a bit.

I don't watch TV at all though. Nor play video games. I rarely watch films. So the net is the only tech vice. I read quite a bit. But i do need to rein it in a bit. I find unless I close stuff I end up coming back to it though. The hassle of doing another email puts me off for a bit.

I wish you could BAN YOURSELF for a week or something. They should have that.

I spoke to a friend who said he is the same only with TV. He has to take a month of just banning it totally.

philstar

whatdoicare wrote: »

My childhood was **** in the 80's, I suffered from extreme shyness and found it very difficult to make friends and I was bullied.
I was incredibly lonely. People tended to and still do talk over me.

If I had like kids today have id have been so happy, a whole world open to me with different people who understand where I'm coming from, there's far more support for people online than there is in the real world.

When I was a kid my world was so small and isolated, I'm very glad it wont be like that for my kids! I wouldn't go back to my childhood, no way!

+ 1

had a similar childhood growing up in rural ireland, if the internet was around back then maybe i wouldn't have felt so isolated.....there's pros and cons to modern life i suppose

harry Bailey esq

Back when an ecstasy tablet cost more than a round of drinks.Now they cost less than a pint of bulmers,which back then was a favourite of tramps,ner do wells and teenagers due to its cheapness.Now its probably the most expensive pint in most places.Good ole days indeed

tomwaterford

Littlekittylou wrote: »

I have quit twitter now need to quit boards and FB. Or even just twice a week. It's a time vacuum! I was good this week though and got out a bit.

I don't watch TV at all though. Nor play video games. I rarely watch films. So the net is the only tech vice. I read quite a bit. But i do need to rein it in a bit. I find unless I close stuff I end up coming back to it though. The hassle of doing another email puts me off for a bit.

I wish you could BAN YOURSELF for a week or something. They should have that.

I spoke to a friend who said he is the same only with TV. He has to take a month of just banning it totally.

AFAIK.....they used do that before.....not sure who you to PM though

Odyssey 2005

Thought this was going to be about the TV programme "the good auld days"

Littlekittylou

tomwaterford wrote: »

AFAIK.....they used do that before.....not sure who you to PM though

They used to do it for the Cuckoo lounge anyway.

I had ask them to Ban me for a bit when I started a Boardsiecutter cult (closed account now). I was losing the run of myself it was for the greater good!

tomwaterford

Littlekittylou wrote: »

They used to do it for the Cuckoo lounge anyway.

I had ask them to Ban me for a bit when I started a Boardsiecutter cult (closed account now). I was losing the run of myself it was for the greater good!

WTF???:eek:

ToddyDoody

Karl Stein wrote: »

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Did you know, throughout the history of humankind, young male adults were initiated into adulthood by the adult males by essentially, getting a good hiding until they'd do what they're told and be of some use.

By today's standards, this type of thing wouldn't be very PC but, good god, you've got to admit that the best thing for an awful lot of youngfellas really would be to have the **** kicked out of them.

Incidentally, isn't that what sport is about?

_Brian

Leinsterblue wrote: »

I think kids are better off today, the only difference being that the lifestyle of a kid nowadays compared to early 80's is much more sedentary physically, this is purely down to play station wii, etc... also sports wise kids can't be arsed generally to kick a ball in a muddy irish field and won't play as much on street if at all... when such distractions did no exist as computer games there was more partiicipation.

The positives are that kids are not subject to corporal punishment in schools which back in the day made education a sometimes frightening experience.

Your making it sound like the kids decide what happens..

We've two girls here 12 & 6, they have some of the mod play stuff, wii, tablets, DS. Access to netflix, show box and youtube. 12 YO will probably get a laptop for entering secondary..
But the key is using all these things in moderation, they play on their technology sure. But they're active, play outside most evenings on their bikes or swings. Irish Dancing, Camogie, swimming, ballet..
Eldest is a competitive swimmer - 10 hours of serious activity last week, played with her electronics stuff, read three books, watched a few hours TV..

Kids do what they see their parents doing, parents are sitting around watching mind numbing crap on the TV so kids do the same. We put on the TV to watch something in particular and then its off again, not just put it on and watch whatever comes on next.

I think its only natural for people of a certain age to look back and hanker for how things used to be, I think its more of a longing to be young again rather than actually believing that the 70's were somehow better - I was a kid of the 70's and no I don't think it was better..

JacquesDeLad

whatdoicare wrote: »

My childhood was **** in the 80's, I suffered from extreme shyness and found it very difficult to make friends and I was bullied.
I was incredibly lonely. People tended to and still do talk over me.

If I had like kids today have id have been so happy, a whole world open to me with different people who understand where I'm coming from, there's far more support for people online than there is in the real world.

When I was a kid my world was so small and isolated, I'm very glad it wont be like that for my kids! I wouldn't go back to my childhood, no way!

You're saying that with years of life experience behind you. There are kids who grow up now with the same problems, and possibly worse. Building relationships is trickier and more dangerous online, I think. How do you know you wouldn't have just become a victim of online bullying instead the real world type you experienced?

From my own experience was outgoing and no problem interacting with other kids, though that occasionally involved getting bullied by other kids but it was part growing up. Playing games all day long was a great way of learning social skills and the kinds of people you got on with or didn't get on with.

I don't know if I'd be miserable growing up today but I'd definitely be bouncing off the walls unable to burn off energy. I'd probably be obese.:eek:

cloud493

Alright old timers.

anncoates

I spent plenty of time as a kid and teenager in bedrooms (or houses) with my mates watching TV, listening to records, chatting etc ad well as being outdoors, hanging about, playing football etc.

Likewise with my kids. We live on an estate and they have a group of about 15 or so mates and they seem to be the same as me back then: they're indoors sometimes playing Xbox or with Match Attax but - weather permitting - they also play outside for hours.

There's an understandable element of selective nostalgia here where the narrative is happy super fit kids never stayed indoors 20 or 30 years ago versus slugs nowadays never ever play out.

The truth is in between.

mister gullible

Now we have high unemployment, high taxes, high joblessness, have to save for years before getting a mortgage......
It's just like the good old days!!!

JacquesDeLad

mister gullible wrote: »

Now we have high unemployment, high taxes, high joblessness, have to save for years before getting a mortgage......
It's just like the good old days!!!

Taxes were much higher, 70% income tax. But everything was nationalised so the Paul Murphys of the '80s had even fewer targets to protest about.