Anonymous wrote:I am in Europe for the summer where the playgrounds are packed with kids, and I started reading and translating this thread and the parents at the park were like, who are these nutzo parents who climb on playground equipment and/or inhibit the play of their kids with other kids. They couldn't believe it. They are like - go hiking or biking with your kids, let them play with other kids on the playground. I explained it was cultural - maybe it's a reaction to guns or crime or emotional damage with millennials - but it was just so foreign to them.

Anonymous wrote:I am in Europe for the summer where the playgrounds are packed with kids, and I started reading and translating this thread and the parents at the park were like, who are these nutzo parents who climb on playground equipment and/or inhibit the play of their kids with other kids. They couldn't believe it. They are like - go hiking or biking with your kids, let them play with other kids on the playground. I explained it was cultural - maybe it's a reaction to guns or crime or emotional damage with millennials - but it was just so foreign to them.

Anonymous wrote:My kids will choose playing with us at the playground over playing with other kids everytime. So we play with them sometimes and other times say you have to play with other kids.

My kids are not good at getting started at playing with other kids. We practice things they can say and do to make it easier. But at the same time, they come to the playground to have a good time. We don't force it. So sometimes they just play by themselves (when we say no but they don't want to play with other kids). And that's fine too.

Occasionally they have a great time playing with other kids. And that's great too.

Kids are 4 and 7. As long as they're getting some good physical playing in, I'm happy. And all the better when I get to sit on the bench and read a book.

We, their parents, are not particularly social people. At a party, I'm absolutely going to spend the majority of the time talking to my spouse. Cats don't have dogs...

Anonymous wrote:I am in Europe for the summer where the playgrounds are packed with kids, and I started reading and translating this thread and the parents at the park were like, who are these nutzo parents who climb on playground equipment and/or inhibit the play of their kids with other kids. They couldn't believe it. They are like - go hiking or biking with your kids, let them play with other kids on the playground. I explained it was cultural - maybe it's a reaction to guns or crime or emotional damage with millennials - but it was just so foreign to them.

Anonymous wrote:Or maybe the millennial parents are remembering how sad it was to have mom and dad brush you off because theyd rather read a newspaper than play with us. Playing with our kids to fight the generational ghosts of our pasts. Being a playful engaged parent shouldn't be looked at like its ruining the children. It's objectively better for kids to have parents they trust.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Millennial parents have received the message that they need to be actively parenting their kid always to be seen as a good parent and if they let their kid play and go sit on their phone on the bench someone is going to think they’re a lazy mom. There’s been an overcorrection of how much we are expected to be engaged with our kids always in reaction to lazy latchkey parenting we got. Of course both are problematic in their own ways. So it goes.

So much baked in misogyny. I was a latchkey kid because my mother worked full-time, and we lived in a community where kids free-ranged, and there were enough neighbor mothers who didn't work outside the home who kept an eye out as the kids roamed the neighborhood. I agree that millennial mothers might also be getting misogynistic messages that they have to be outwardly actively parenting to be seen as good mothers, but this kind of swoop-in parenting is pretty damaging for kids -they never learn to self-soothe or to be independent beings. Parents need to sublimate their own egos and control their own anxieties - let the kids figure out how to entertain themselves or interact with others without parental interventions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Millennial parents have received the message that they need to be actively parenting their kid always to be seen as a good parent and if they let their kid play and go sit on their phone on the bench someone is going to think they’re a lazy mom. There’s been an overcorrection of how much we are expected to be engaged with our kids always in reaction to lazy latchkey parenting we got. Of course both are problematic in their own ways. So it goes.

So much baked in misogyny. I was a latchkey kid because my mother worked full-time, and we lived in a community where kids free-ranged, and there were enough neighbor mothers who didn't work outside the home who kept an eye out as the kids roamed the neighborhood. I agree that millennial mothers might also be getting misogynistic messages that they have to be outwardly actively parenting to be seen as good mothers, but this kind of swoop-in parenting is pretty damaging for kids -they never learn to self-soothe or to be independent beings. Parents need to sublimate their own egos and control their own anxieties - let the kids figure out how to entertain themselves or interact with others without parental interventions.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Millennial parents have received the message that they need to be actively parenting their kid always to be seen as a good parent and if they let their kid play and go sit on their phone on the bench someone is going to think they’re a lazy mom. There’s been an overcorrection of how much we are expected to be engaged with our kids always in reaction to lazy latchkey parenting we got. Of course both are problematic in their own ways. So it goes.