Oh how I wish I owned a DeLorean. I would make like Marty McFly and put the pedal to the metal, reaching 88 miles per hour until I ended up somewhere in the 1980s.
Please allow me to explain.
One evening this week our family was lounging around our living room watching television. Though I use the term “watching” loosely, because not a single one of us had our eyes set on the television. Instead, my wife and I were surfing on our cell phones, our daughter was playing her Nintendo DS and our son was gazing over that night’s hockey scores on his tablet.
It was then that I wished I could travel back in time to my childhood to the tacky and wacky world of the 1980s. The decade of mix tapes and walkmans, the Rubik’s Cube, Pogo balls, the A-Team, Jell-O Pudding Pops, Randy “Macho Man” Savage and Family Ties.
As much as we think our children are spoiled these days, with all their electronic gadgets, they are probably deprived more than anything.
We as a society have become so consumed with today’s technology, and have dived in too deep, that we’ll never witness another decade quite like the 1980s.
Of course we had techno gadgets, but it was far more balanced than it is today. My best buddies and I would play Nintendo and then spend the rest of the afternoon and evening exploring outdoors. Our parents “kind of” knew where we were and we “kind of” knew when we were expected home. It just seemed indoor/outdoor time was much more balanced back in my day.
Road hockey, hide-and-go-seek, tag, building forts, and getting filthy dirty just because we could. Now that was living. I want my children to experience the same.
I realize daydreaming of time travel is pointless so I best try to live in the present by trying to cut back on screen time myself. Cutting back on screen time is difficult to stick to and as adults we need to practice what we preach to our kids.
It’s one thing to allow technology to enhance our lives but it’s another thing to allow our lives to be taken over by it. There certainly can’t be a post on Facebook or photo on Instagram or new level completed on Candy Crush that is more important than spending quality time and creating memories with family and friends.
And winter months shouldn’t be used as an excuse not to power down.
With all the new communities being developed comes more than a fair share of playgrounds, green spaces and outdoor rinks. With the stellar weather we have been experiencing over the last couple months you would expect these areas to be used more frequently. However, more often than not, these spots remain deserted.
When I was a kid my punishment was not being allowed to go outside, while nowadays it seems, at least for some, that being forced to unplug to enjoy the joys of life beyond the screen is considered punishment.
And we certainly didn’t have our parents setting up playdates for us. Children of my generation had to make their own friends. We had neighbourhood kids to play with from morning ‘til night. Or at least until that one kid had to ruin whatever game we were playing when he/she had to scamper home because the streetlights had turned on.
As a parent who was an 80s kid and longs for the good ole days, I want to be able to send my children outside and just say “go play” but I need other parents from my generation to do the same so mine have someone to play with.
Who’s with me?
