Quote:
If anyone wants to point a finger at what caused the decline I would have to start with Technology. In the 50's, 60's, and 1970's every kid on the block had a Stamp collection or Baseball card collection. Today's youth are too consumed with IPADS, IPODS, Nintendo, Xbox, Playstation, etc. Not to mention that back in the 1970's there were actually ways for a 12 year old to make money such as delivering Newspapers. Today all the jobs that used be be held by Teen aged Children are now taken by the elderly because social security really isn't much security.
You know technology is an easy target, but that's not the problem in my house. Sure my kids like to play video games, but if you combine video game or computer time with TV time the total is way less than the amount of TV I watched growing up in the 60's and 70's (think Gilligan's Island and a slew of other TV shows after school everyday and cartoons every weekend morning etc.).
Frankly, my kids have an interest in stamps but are WAY too busy. They have much more homework and organized activities than I even had, particularly the homework. Also, think of the number of kids that stay at school after hours so their parents can work. On the weekday, after school, homework and dinner, they have about an hour of free time before bed. Often times that means a video game or TV show.
Now, I do agree that fewer employment opportunities for kids, such as paper routes may be crimping some kids budgets. But with $40-$60 new releases of popular video games, I'm betting that's were the dollars are going. However, in my house, the kids [don't] really need more money to buy more things. They need time.
Posted 03/01/2013 1:50 pm
