Debbie C

I kept my home electronic free. My girls played in the yard, made 'elf villages' with sticks, moss, rocks and imaginations! They grew up to love the gardens and growing vegetables. Today they are 'tree hugging naturalists'. They put clothes out to dry on the outside line, love fresh air and are making the world a better place by being great role models. Mom always said dirt don't hurt!

sewbizgirl

By all means, get them outside as much as possible! When we lived in town we had a big fenced back yard that the kids played in every day. Then we moved to the country and the great outdoors was their playground.

When mine were small they loved to go to parks with playground equipment, where they could run, climb on things, and meet new kids to play with.

Electronic stuff just can't compare.

Chasing Hawk

When the grand-kids come to visit, we get them outside as much as possible during the day they have leave their phones inside. We do outdoor activities when they come to visit, we take Micheal out for driving lessons on the dirt back roads, we go target practicing, go to a museum, go on a picnic or just take the dogs out for some fun in the forest.

At meal time the phones are not allowed within reach. After supper we watch a movie, again no phones. When settling down for the evening they can get back on their phones till they pass out...lol I myself don't sit at the computer all day, I do drag the laptop out into the living room when we watch TV, husband likes to find out things about programs we watch. Especially the ones about other countries, cultures and customs or just about a certain actor. In between looking stuff up I still can't sit a just watch TV, I do those Jigidi puzzle or play Mahjong I have installed on the laptop. Or just sit and handsew or do some other project.

Jingle

My kids played outside like I did when I was a kid. We had no A/C so always cooler outside. TV was only for evening watching after dinner and their Dad was home.

My Granddaughter in law thinks she should be playing with her Daughter (3) all the time. I think they need to play by themselves and use their imagination. GDIL is a very poor housekeeper, I guess not much time for cleaning after a day of playing everyday.

Our youngest Grandson, just turned 16. Never played outside much, watched TV and played on computer. He had to read before going to bed. Taught himself how to play games and figure it out himself. Since he started school he has excelled at his school work and is in the gifted class for many years. He is into learning history and has much of it memorized. When he graduates high school he will go two years to a junior college and four years to a college for real smart kids. He wants to be an engineer, rocket scientist, or hard telling what. He will probably change his mind a few times by then. Not everyone enjoys sports and hard to make a living playing them. I don't see how electronics has hurt him.

Macybaby

This might help explain some of the problems I am having with the younger work force. They seem to have an inability to work on their own. They are great as long as you tell them what to do and when to do it, but expecting them to have self direction and to notice problems and figure out how to fix them seems to be too much.

This is not a problem with bad attitudes or unwillingness or even lack of skills. They just don't seem to notice when something isn't "right". And they have a real problem if you can't give them explicit instructions on how to complete a task. They do fine in areas where the work can be very predictable and potential problems can be codified. But they do very poorly dealing with the unexpected. Which means they do not have the skills needed to move into management where one of the biggest skills is to recognize that there is a problem and then get creative in finding solutions.

SusieQOH

When we were kids our parents were very strict about TV and to this day I don't have much use for it. I'm glad they did that. So many other things to do besides sitting in front of it.

klswift

Being a single parent, owning a business and having kids involved in activities, our life could get a bit hectic. We had a white board calendar in the hallway with all the 'stuff' listed on it (the rule being that if it wasn't on the board, my car didn't go there!). Every once in awhile I took the marker and put a giant X thru a day. That was our 'non-day'. No schedule, no plan, nothing. If you didn't even want to get out of pajamas - fine, wanted to lay out in the yard all day - fine, want friends over to play - fine, Just nothing planned, scheduled or time driven. It was great! We actually started 'scheduling' more of the non-days as they got older. They are all grown and on their own, but we still have the practice of 'non-days'.

Chasing Hawk

I want to go outside and play!!!

I have been cooped up in the house for so many days I lost count. The smoke and haze has been so bad even opening the door to give a treat to the dogs sets my lungs on fire.

Today is suppose to be clear, but when I opened the door to let Princess Sandy in to have breakfast it smelled and looked like I was standing in campfire smoke.

If I had kids, they wouldn't be allowed outside while its like this and I would be bald..........LOL