honest question - what do we do with our kids after May 29?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is that some posters are asking school staff to risk their health (and the health of their families) to educate, or in certain examples babysit, your children so you can work from home in peace. It’s just incredibly inconsiderate
I understand how stressful this all is for everyone, but we have to think of the well-being of everyone.

I think people are not just wanting child care. In-person school is truly better for kids' education. For summer they need activities. Sure, they could wander the neighborhood but no one does that anymore.

A little more wandering the neighborhood would be good for all our kids who are over the age of 6-7. The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of planned/scheduled/professional experiences. An old school summer would honestly be one that they'd actually remember.

The reason kids today can't occupy themselves for any amount of time is that they've never had to. Parents are paying the price for the massive over-scheduling now. Independence and self soothing are learned skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is that some posters are asking school staff to risk their health (and the health of their families) to educate, or in certain examples babysit, your children so you can work from home in peace. It’s just incredibly inconsiderate
I understand how stressful this all is for everyone, but we have to think of the well-being of everyone.

I think people are not just wanting child care. In-person school is truly better for kids' education. For summer they need activities. Sure, they could wander the neighborhood but no one does that anymore.

A little more wandering the neighborhood would be good for all our kids who are over the age of 6-7. The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of planned/scheduled/professional experiences. An old school summer would honestly be one that they'd actually remember.

The reason kids today can't occupy themselves for any amount of time is that they've never had to. Parents are paying the price for the massive over-scheduling now. Independence and self soothing are learned skills.

I’m an 80s/90s kid and no parents back then were letting their 6/7 year olds roam the neighborhood unsupervised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is that some posters are asking school staff to risk their health (and the health of their families) to educate, or in certain examples babysit, your children so you can work from home in peace. It’s just incredibly inconsiderate
I understand how stressful this all is for everyone, but we have to think of the well-being of everyone.

I think people are not just wanting child care. In-person school is truly better for kids' education. For summer they need activities. Sure, they could wander the neighborhood but no one does that anymore.

A little more wandering the neighborhood would be good for all our kids who are over the age of 6-7. The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of planned/scheduled/professional experiences. An old school summer would honestly be one that they'd actually remember.

The reason kids today can't occupy themselves for any amount of time is that they've never had to. Parents are paying the price for the massive over-scheduling now. Independence and self soothing are learned skills.

I’m an 80s/90s kid and no parents back then were letting their 6/7 year olds roam the neighborhood unsupervised.

Maybe not in your neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Late 70-80s kid and we did. Always with a friend or sibling but we’d go out in am, home for lunch at someone’s house and back at dinner. Sometimes someone’s mom took us to the pool, but that mostly happened on weekends.

Rainy days were with friends playing or hanging out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Late 70-80s kid and we did. Always with a friend or sibling but we’d go out in am, home for lunch at someone’s house and back at dinner. Sometimes someone’s mom took us to the pool, but that mostly happened on weekends.

Rainy days were with friends playing or hanging out.

I did this as a kid, but we also lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood. We rarely had speeding cars on our street, never saw adults doing drugs in public, never had shootings in the town except for rarely publicized domestic violence, never had obviously mentally ill folks walking around...

[Anonymous]

What do you do with your kids? The reality is that many people are going to have to sacrifice their jobs, their homes, maybe their life savings. And some people will never recoup those things. It's going to be terribly hard. I'm so sorry. This is not going to end in the fall. We've got a long, hard road ahead of economic devastation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is that some posters are asking school staff to risk their health (and the health of their families) to educate, or in certain examples babysit, your children so you can work from home in peace. It’s just incredibly inconsiderate
I understand how stressful this all is for everyone, but we have to think of the well-being of everyone.

I think people are not just wanting child care. In-person school is truly better for kids' education. For summer they need activities. Sure, they could wander the neighborhood but no one does that anymore.

A little more wandering the neighborhood would be good for all our kids who are over the age of 6-7. The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of planned/scheduled/professional experiences. An old school summer would honestly be one that they'd actually remember.

The reason kids today can't occupy themselves for any amount of time is that they've never had to. Parents are paying the price for the massive over-scheduling now. Independence and self soothing are learned skills.

+1 million. Bullseye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is that some posters are asking school staff to risk their health (and the health of their families) to educate, or in certain examples babysit, your children so you can work from home in peace. It’s just incredibly inconsiderate
I understand how stressful this all is for everyone, but we have to think of the well-being of everyone.

I think people are not just wanting child care. In-person school is truly better for kids' education. For summer they need activities. Sure, they could wander the neighborhood but no one does that anymore.

A little more wandering the neighborhood would be good for all our kids who are over the age of 6-7. The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of planned/scheduled/professional experiences. An old school summer would honestly be one that they'd actually remember.

The reason kids today can't occupy themselves for any amount of time is that they've never had to. Parents are paying the price for the massive over-scheduling now. Independence and self soothing are learned skills.

You're painting with too broad a brush, PP. Just because I kid can "occupy" himself or herself without TV or a scheduled activity doesn't mean they're doing anything productive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is that some posters are asking school staff to risk their health (and the health of their families) to educate, or in certain examples babysit, your children so you can work from home in peace. It’s just incredibly inconsiderate
I understand how stressful this all is for everyone, but we have to think of the well-being of everyone.

I think people are not just wanting child care. In-person school is truly better for kids' education. For summer they need activities. Sure, they could wander the neighborhood but no one does that anymore.

A little more wandering the neighborhood would be good for all our kids who are over the age of 6-7. The pendulum has swung too far in the direction of planned/scheduled/professional experiences. An old school summer would honestly be one that they'd actually remember.

The reason kids today can't occupy themselves for any amount of time is that they've never had to. Parents are paying the price for the massive over-scheduling now. Independence and self soothing are learned skills.

You're painting with too broad a brush, PP. Just because I kid can "occupy" himself or herself without TV or a scheduled activity doesn't mean they're doing anything productive.

I "occupied myself" for hours each day back in those ruggedly independent 1970s and it means that today I can sing both versions of the Gilligan's Island theme song.

[Anonymous]

+100. Me, too, along with the Love Boat song.

[Anonymous]

And where's the love for Love, American Style?

Back in the free-range 70s, we learned important lessons in self-reliance by finding the Zenith remote in time to click away from Match Game before mom could object to a particular suggestive question from Gene.

[Anonymous]

We practiced self-soothing by eating Quisp from the box while listening for the scream in Love Rollercoaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Late 70-80s kid and we did. Always with a friend or sibling but we’d go out in am, home for lunch at someone’s house and back at dinner. Sometimes someone’s mom took us to the pool, but that mostly happened on weekends.

Rainy days were with friends playing or hanging out.

I did this as a kid, but we also lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood. We rarely had speeding cars on our street, never saw adults doing drugs in public, never had shootings in the town except for rarely publicized domestic violence, never had obviously mentally ill folks walking around...

Wut? There’s none of that in my neighborhood now. Move out of the ghetto, Brandine.

[Anonymous]

At 7 -8- 9 - 10 we were walking across the street or down the street to meet up with neighborhood kids for mostly outside play in the summer.

Rainy days was for inside.

We were expected to show up for lunch and dinner.

[Anonymous]

if anyone has ideas of programs I could create to meet this need, please post here thanks we're brainstorming now! https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/880554.page