Essentially, self-entertainment means kids keeping themselves appropriately occupied while a parent’s attention is elsewhere. As much as this benefits children when they are small, it also plants the seed for healthy, independent adulthood. Children who know how to self-entertain won’t need to depend on television, video games, social media, or other technology to keep busy in their free time. They will already know how to pursue worthier and healthier activities.
The question comes, then: How do parents instill the skill of self-entertainment into young children?
I was lucky. I came by my ability to self-entertain naturally, thanks in no small part to my wonderful fleet of full-sized Tonka construction equipment and the sandbox my Dad built for me in the back yard.
ReplyDeleteI was just lucky we didn't have a cat, if you catch my drift.
After my wife left, my sons lived with me until they graduated college as an Electrical Engineer and a Certified Jeweler. I have never owned a tv
ReplyDeleteI was booted outside after breakfast and instructed to be home when the streetlights came on. When I was observed doing something stupid, I was yelled at, smacked, or something in between depending upon how stupid the act and/or how many times I had previously been told that the act was stupid.
ReplyDeleteAs a direct result, whenever I start doing something stupid, ranging from not wiping my feet when I come inside to putting my hide (or someone else's) in danger, the back of my head starts to hurt.
Grew up on a farm, but close to the same. You'd be surprised what the neighbors 1/4 mile away could report about your activities when doing something you shouldn't. No TV, and lots of room to run around. And if you did get bored there were lots of chores to do until you were no longer bored.
DeleteNo TV.
ReplyDeletePeople are dumber today than at anytime in my life.
ReplyDeleteJust watch how unaware they are when behind the wheel.
This all goes back to how they were allowed to navigate their childhoods.
Too much TV and computer screens robbed them of experiencing the real world.
They were too insulated and self absorbed.
A bicycle and a dog would have done a lot of good.
I agree with Blackdog. People today are dumber. They no longer have to think and depend on tech for everything. I remember when calculators first came out, and everyone said how we would all get stupider having a device that no longer requires us to do math. Well, the internet is a million times that and more. Same for TV...3 channels, and cartoons only on Saturday. Now kids have nonstop entertainment everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI played with crafts, built models, and when outside, played in trees, the park, and sometimes, me and my friends would take our bikes where our parents said we were not allowed to go. We didn't watch people create stuff...we created. We didn't watch others have adventures, we had our own. We didn't have all the answers with a simple google search, we had to find our answers in the library, or talk to someone. The learning was not in the answer, but in the quest.
I do wonder, is the world really in decline, or just the world I grew up in? Will everything be okay, just not how I hoped it would be? Every grandparents says the world has gone to shit, but things always seem okay for the newer generations taking over. They say the world is ending. But this time feels different...or is it just me?
TEACH children how to "self-entertain"?!? What in hell is wrong with people today? In my childhood no one had to "teach" kids how to play. If anything, the adults would have preferred that we stop playing at some point.
ReplyDeleteI was totally gobsmacked by that idiotic Michael Obama "Play 60" campaign a number of years ago. Who needs to encourage kids to play?
Us Gen X fuckers had to do it all the damn time.
ReplyDeleteSedition
Starker here,
ReplyDeleteI'm a boom -X cusp. We would ride five miles one way on bikes to the swimming pool or just for a day adventure. This wasn't flat Midwest but good sized hills / small mountains in Bucks & Northampton Cos Pa. We would spend the day on a hike or going down a creek, or exploring. We'd make dams on creeks, build forts, go fishing for sunnys. Sometimes we did stupid stuff too. We would get scolded by adults and our parents always knew about it before we got home.
But we still complained there was nothing to do. Then we'd be sent out for the day.