Great observation Ann!

Remember the days when you could wonder out of your parent's sight for hours at a time with no fear of strangers trying to lure you away. Or even skateboarding or riding your bike without a helmet. Scraps and bruises just made you stronger and validated that you were having fun; next time knowing where your limits lie. When during sport activies we kept score and winners were winners and losers tried harder the next time around. And who can forget summer time when we would be out with our friends from dusk to dawn always pushing the boundaries but never causing any serious trouble...because we knew that on every corner there really was an adult who would keep us in line. AGHHH...the good ole' days.

I'm with you on this Ann!

The need to eliminate all risk and danger from life tends to squeeze all life from life.

When fear is the driver what do we lose? Adventure? Surprise? Wisdom?

Got my mind racing with this one Ann - thanks for thinking out loud!

"Is all of this supervision and control helping them grow up? Or is it really keeping them young?"

Great quote. Sooner or later parents have to let the bird out of the nest. They can either give them the freedom to learn how to fly first, or throw them out into the world and let them fend for themselves. It's a tightrope walk, that's for sure.

That is such a good question. I know that when my mother was my age, things were much different.

I think that in the technologically advanced world we live in today has a big impact on the kids of the younger generation. They have cell phones at younger ages then when I was a kid, but they're restricted to only certain uses. College pressure is immense to be "well rounded," therefore leaving little option for kids not to be involved.

I think that cell phones are inappropriate for kids under the age of a high school freshman. The only reason I ever had one was because I traveled a lot with the football and basketball teams to away games in the fall and winter. So what's the use of having one when I'm 10? So my mom can keep track of me? I know that when I was 10 years old, my mom knew where I was at all times; I wasn't allowed to walk home from school (if I could), or to the nearby park without her permission/supervision. I think the whole cell phone idea is a way for parents to neglect their kids. And if, as a parent, you have signed your son/daughter up for many sports, so many that it's hard to transport them, take a step back. You then should reevaluate what you are doing for your children: are you helping them in any way by having them involved in so many things? I don't think so.

So I believe that the root of this problem of the new generation of kids not being as wise as their parents were, then I think it all roots back to the idea of having a cell phone too young.

Thanks for this post.

How can we ever find our boundaries if we aren't allowed to push them? How can we ever learn from mistakes that we aren't allowed to make?

I'm regularly thankful that my folks encouraged me to explore and be independent. Of course, when I did screw up, I got to take the consequences of that and I learned pretty quickly to either not screw up or to clean it up myself (fast).

I think these are important lessons for people to learn. I know that they were important lessons for me.

Why in the world would you play soccer, or ANY game for that matter, where the score was not kept?

Why would you even try to score a goal if not to score a point????

Goodness, what is this nation coming to? All this P.C. crap about not wanting anybody to FEEL bad... In my day (and that day was a Friday) we played sports to win, and if you got hurt on the field, you came back to school a hero the next day. And if you lost, it sucked, but you packed up your gear, practiced harder, and came back to the next game ready to get the job done.

I remember those summer days of riding my bike all day, completely out of contact with anybody in my family, or days running around in the woods until it was too dark to see the trees.

We were lucky. Now all we have is a bunch of Stepford Children running around.

Great post!

As a young Dad (6 months old baby boy), I can already feel this 'I have to protect him from whatever' feeling ... and it scares me ...

My question to you Ann would be: "Now that you realized this, will your behavior towards your two kids change?" ;o)

Thanks for the comments, Scott, Michael, Mack, Julie, Ariel, JD and Xavier. As an aside, I told my son about the GPS phone-tracking, and his response: "Mom! We're kids! Not criminals on house arrest!"

To Xavier's question: Will I (or would I) raise my kids differently..? It gives me food for thought, sure, especially given that there's always a certain amount of guilt and self-doubt woven into parenting. (Which I'm sure you've already experienced...even by now!)

I sure did! ;o)

But will I have the will to go against this and do what's really best ...

Anyway, let's go back to Marketing ...

Interesting points, although I really like the idea of games without scoring. Games should be FUN and children should play to learn to work together. The minute we start keeping score, we turn some children into losers. Is that really necessary when they're 5?