If we try to engineer perfect children, will they grow up to be unbearable? - By Katie Roiphe - Slat

[autographedcat]

Not being a parent myself, I have no personal insights to add here, but have long wondered at the incredible amount of structure most kids seem to grow up in these days, compared to when I was growing up.

If we try to engineer perfect children, will they grow up to be unbearable? - By Katie Roiphe - Slate Magazine

Can we, for a moment, flash back to the benign neglect of the 1970s and '80s? I can remember my parents having parties, wild children running around until dark, catching fireflies. If these children helped themselves to three slices of cake, or ingested the second-hand smoke from cigarettes, or carried cocktails to adults who were ever so slightly slurring their words, they were not noticed; they were loved, just not monitored. And, as I remember it, those warm summer nights of not being focused on were liberating. In the long sticky hours of boredom, in the lonely, unsupervised, unstructured time, something blooms; it was in those margins that we became ourselves

Comments

[artbeco.livejournal.com]

An interesting article; I was going to reply here but it ended up becoming a whole entry of its own:
http://artbeco.livejournal.com/81106.htm

I think there must be a balance to be found, but each family has to find its own blend. Ours at the moment has a lot of structured activities, and I take flak for that from well-meaning people. It isn't my intention to force my kids into some stupid mold, but to let them explore things that my sisters and I never had the chance to. Part of that involves letting them try organized sports. It's an interesting lesson in moving out of my own comfort zones.

[artbeco.livejournal.com]

Ah, maybe this link will work better: http://artbeco.livejournal.com/
Sorry!