Today while driving home from the grocery store, I had the opportunity to literally drive right through the middle of my neighborhood. It was about 5pm on a beautiful, sunny summer afternoon. As I was driving, I noticed all the well manicured lawns, and how nice and peaceful everything looked. That’s when the bell inside my head went off. Why is it so peaceful? Where are all the kids on bikes? The kids playing war with squirt guns? Kids running around being kids? Kids playing baseball in their yard? Playing wiffleball in the street? Racing R/C cars? Swimming in backyard pools?
None of that was to be found. In fact, I did not see a single kid on my drive home. Why does this bother me? Because when I was a kid I spent 95% of my summer days outside. The 5% that was inside was when the weather was too crappy to do anything else.
When I woke up, I immediately got dressed and wanted to start my day. I would hop on my bike and ride around the neighborhood looking to see what my other friends were up to. Once we all met up, we would go from house to house, yard to yard as the day progressed playing anything and everything along the way.
Kids today seem content to just sit inside and not do anything but watch TV and play video games. Now, I’m the last person that will bash video games. But as an upcoming father-to-be, I’ll be damned if my son will sit inside the house on a beautiful day instead of going outside and enjoy being a kid. Some of my fondest memories growing up were the quick games of catch my dad and I would play when he got home from his second job at dusk. We would throw that baseball until we couldn’t see it anymore. Then we would sit out on the porch and talk until it was time to go to bed.
Childhood goes by too quickly to have it spent on your ass in front of a digital simulation. Instead of playing Mario Kart, dare to go outside, scavenge for some materials, and build your own go cart. And don’t say that’s impossible because me and all my friends did it. We would race from one of the tallest hills in the neighborhood down to the bottom. Yes, we got hurt. Yes, we got dirty. And yes, we got in trouble from time to time. But you know what, that’s part of being a kid. Kids today, and mostly their sorry excuse for a parent, just don’t get that.
