I saw on the news and read in
the New York Times the shocking news: many kids under the age of 5 are often
left to be entertained by a digital device instead of spending quality time on
a parent’s or caregiver’s lap.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/health/many-children-under-5-are-left-to-their-mobile-devices-survey-finds.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
Experts said a small, self-reported survey added to
evidence that the unsupervised use of mobile screens is deeply woven into
childhood experiences by age 4.
Keeping in mind this was a very small study, experts
nonetheless say they think this result not only is surprising but probably also
representative of the dangers many young children are exposed to today.
The horror. Not like
us lucky children of the golden age of parenting. We, who grew up in the 1950’s
with stay-at-home moms and non-stop parental nurturing, were, like the TV
families of yore, the last generation raised in idyllic days when all things
were better. Or at least we are led to believe.
Return with me for a moment to those thrilling days of yesteryear.
My brother and I would creep from our beds in the early morning hours while our
exhausted parents slept. You may think we were reading great children’s
literature, imagining wonderfully creative inventions. Or building make-believe
castles and rocket ships to the moon. Only the last item has some truth. We tried
to build our own rocket ships. But they always crashed, sometimes burned, and
on occasion, created fire hazards.
And if truth be told, which I intend to do as I lift the
covers of those idyllic times, most of the early morning hours were spent in
more mundane, passive, and dare I say it—unsupervised electronic diversions.
There was nothing creative or interesting about it. In those
early morning hours, before the sun or our parents were up, what we actually
were doing was watching the TV while waiting
for programming to come on. For those of you born after 1980 I have a big
revelation. Unlike today, there wasn’t 24-hour television. So we would watch
the Test Pattern. On our black-and-white TV.
If you are too young to know what a Test Pattern is, you can
take my word for it—the Pattern had no educational benefit, no socially
redeeming value. In fact, one Pattern was a Native American head so it was not
even politically correct. But the few TV stations that existed back then ran some
type of Pattern before programming began. And they were even more boring if you
did not have a color TV.
We would sit, huddled under a blanket, watching that Pattern
until some type of program came on. Then we sat as close to the TV as we
wanted. Remember our parents were still sleeping. Once a program came on, no
matter how moronic--we watched, totally entranced, as we were passively
entertained by the then latest technology.
You may say--but, once our parents were awake we had the
benefit of “one-on-one” attention from at least one parent. No, not so much. It’s
true--while our dad worked at least two jobs to support us, our mom was a
stay-at-home parent. Unless dad was laid off one of those jobs. Then mom also had
to find a job and dad cooked. Not a particularly good solution on either
count. Dad couldn’t cook and mom had few job skills so earned very little.
We lived in the suburbs in those early years. Again that
sounds pretty idyllic. But it was miles from libraries, parks, or playgrounds.
Also a long distance from places where one might take music or dance lessons,
play organized sports or participate in group activities.
Since we had only one car and lived several miles past the
bus line we were stuck in our neighborhood unless we walked. Mom shopped by
riding the bus, then taking a several-mile hike, all the while carrying
groceries with two young kids in tow. Similarly she did the household chores
with old-fashioned appliances. An educational project for me was placing
clothes’ pins on the side of a bucket while mom washed clothes in an
old-fashioned wringer-washing machine and then hung them on a line to dry.
There was very little time for parental attention even if
that had been the norm. And direct parental attention was not the norm. Adults
in the 1950’s and even into the 1960’s engaged in adult activities. Children found their own activities. They
were supposed to be seen and not heard. So as long as we were relatively quiet
we were on our own.
Maybe it was a plus that we had much more freedom than
subsequent generations. My brother enjoyed riding his bike within his one-mile boundaries
of the neighborhood. I was never adventurous enough to ask what my boundaries
were, especially after I badly sprained my ankle while executing a turn on
gravel. Instead I spent that summer learning a new mode of
transportation--hopping on one foot.
We had the occasional idyllic days constructing forts in the
nearby woods. Unfortunately, since we had no readily available transportation,
we hadn’t joined any scouting programs where we might have learned to recognize
poison plants. Nor had we heard that jingle about “Leaves of three, let them
be.” So those adventures were inevitably followed by month-long bouts where my
brother and I were covered with poison ivy welts. One particularly bad case
resulted in my brother’s eyes swelling shut. All in a typical 1950’s perfect
summer.
Because of distance and money issues, going to the doctor’s
was rare. An illness had to be life threatening (high fever and / or lots of
blood were the criteria) to require medical attention.
While some things for children today may be better than they
were in my recollections of growing up in the suburban baby boom era, I do not
advocate the latest digital devices to babysit infants and young children. With
or without scientific support I believe the attention of parents, grandparents
or other committed caregivers is superior in most respects. But I also do not
advocate a return to the Donna Reed method of child-rearing. While we baby boomers were not exposed to digital
screen devices, nevertheless, we did the best we could to entrance ourselves
with the technology available.
No one knew at that time what the dangers were of allowing
unsupervised youngsters to sit glued to a Test Pattern. Lord knows we probably lost some IQ points.
And while we had plenty of freedom to explore the unknown there were
substantial dangers associated with our explorations. There probably always will
be.
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