Can someone remind me how kids kept themselves occupied before screens?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, in addition to the accurate "they mostly worked," or "they played with their 7 brothers and sisters," they weren't used to parents entertaining them or being entertained by a screen, so... they came up with their own entertainment. This was their expectation, so they acted accordingly.

It's not like people were (mostly) complaining of boredom all day every day before the invention of TV and computers.

Parents NEVER entertained their children. Parents read their own books. Once in a while a parent would play a board game but this would be rare.
Parents were parents. Kids were kids.

Kids were expected to entertain themselves. Again, a kid would never tell a parent he/she was bored. That meant immediate chores.

[Anonymous]

Play. Play occupied their time.

Something that few children now know how to do.

Ours are used to being entertained now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were beaten. Also, even from a very young age, many many kids worked, either on the family farm or in factories. As young as age 3 and 4, doing very simple tasks.

In the 50s????

Yes, who do you think picked crops? Particularly in the south and California

This was before my time but I had some bosses and older workers who as kids worked in the fields in the south. Breaktime on the farm was RC and a whoopie pie.
The kids were kind of shared out to different farms to do field work. I've had seniors of both races tell me they did this in their childhood in the south.

[Anonymous]

In the 80's as a child, I used to read. Sometimes I read the phone book, professional journals, anything to pass the time. I would do prank calls and call the time and weather.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/remember-when-you-could-call-the-time/488273/
Played outside. I had a croquet set, tetherball, badminton. Hang out with my sibling. Board games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there was a lot more parental neglect. Older kids probably did a lot of the childcare. Kids told to go off and play or do chores. No one worrying about whether they were getting too much screen time or falling behind in math or reading.

There was no screen time so no one worried about it. If you fell behind in math or reading you repeated a grade. No other options. I lived in 3 areas and don't recall parental neglect.
There were large families before birth control so hand me downs were common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had roller skates, jumpropes, hula hoops, a sandbox.

Forgot all of this. In the 70's my brother had his skateboard.

[Anonymous]

Virtually no talk ever of a child being "anxious" or a chld needing to be medicated for anxiety. I suspect being out in the sunshine for hours was somehow protective against this.

Kids learned to figure things out on their own.

[Anonymous]

Boredom inspires creativity. I see it in my kids all the time. When we take away the screens they pout. And then eventually they start doing things like making things out of empty cardboard boxes. It's amazing.

[Anonymous]

Gazing at stars. Learning the constellations.

Fishing. Paper dolls. Making our own Barbie clothes.

[Anonymous]

No supplementary education. Parents did not micro manage their kids classwork or homework. Kids were responsible
for this stuff on their own.

[Anonymous]

Reading, drawing, riding bikes, building rafts and forts, games with neighborhood kids, riding horses, just hanging out or exploring, doing chores (I thought chores were fun & they made me feel grown up.)

There was never enough time in the day to do everything I wanted to do.

[Anonymous]

The difference back then was that as a kid, I was pretty much allowed to go wherever I wanted. I just had to be home when the street lights came on.

So yeah, I didn’t need tv to entertain me - because I was given so much more freedom than kids are allowed today. I swam in the pool of one of my little old lady neighbors. I visited friends. I swam in the creek, wandered the woods and biked to a local bookstore.

[Anonymous]

Kids were allowed much more independent kid time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The difference back then was that as a kid, I was pretty much allowed to go wherever I wanted. I just had to be home when the street lights came on.

So yeah, I didn’t need tv to entertain me - because I was given so much more freedom than kids are allowed today. I swam in the pool of one of my little old lady neighbors. I visited friends. I swam in the creek, wandered the woods and biked to a local bookstore.

This!

Today's parents think screens are the boogeyman. It is the of lack of freedom that is destroying kids independence and fueling their anxieties

[Anonymous]

Beating the hell out of each other, running the neighborhood in feral packs, art projects, reading, etc