Beginning around 1960 or a little before, adults began chipping away at that freedom by increasing the time that children had to spend at schoolwork and, even more significantly, by reducing children’s freedom to play on their own, even when they were out of school and not doing homework. Adult-directed sports for children began to replace ‘pickup’ games; adult-directed classes out of school began to replace hobbies; and parents’ fears led them, ever more, to forbid children from going out to play with other kids, away from home, unsupervised. There are lots of reasons for these changes but the effect, over the decades, has been a continuous and ultimately dramatic decline in children’s opportunities to play and explore in their own chosen ways. Over the same decades that children’s play has been declining, childhood mental disorders have been increasing.
Here at Casa Verde, we kick our kids out of the house and won’t let them back in until we’re certain they’ve had unsupervised fun. Of course, that’s more for Mommy and Daddy’s mental health, but still.
How are they ever going to figure out who they are if all they do is other people’s stuff?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member