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[Name removed]

[Agschmid]

1. Seems like an unscientific study...

Maybe you need to to places with more appealing pastries?

[JaneyVee]

2. I'm shocked that pastries and family time don't excite teenagers.

But seriously, I kinda know where you're coming from. Kids these days are pretty desensitized, it takes more than pastries and family time to get an emotion out of them.

[Agschmid]

3. It's called millennials.

[JaneyVee]

4. I'm guilty.

[Agschmid]

5. Im an X'er I think...

I'm 28.

[Agschmid]

11. True when I was a kid...

I was ecstatic just to ride the subway. Such a treat, and honestly it still is.

Clearly I work in the wrong field.

[Agschmid]

17. The world does change...

Hell imagine being born in the 1920s and living until now... The change must be mind blowing, and I'm sure those people have a "kids these days" story too.

We all judge change and often times negatively, even though overall much of the change has been positive in nature.

[Agschmid]

28. Sure idyllic...

But science has made life better for most, almost indisputable.

[jwirr]

6. If they are addicted it is not just computers. Cartoons and games are also mind benders. I watch my

great grandchildren spellbound with all of these. You have to yell to get their attention. Or I have found a better way. I turn whatever they are watching off until they turn around to see what happened.

[haele]

7. These younger than tween, or were they closer to teenagers?

Tweens are lurching into typical teenage sullen cynicism a year or two earlier than they did in my day, but I chalk that up to social media and incessant advertising to be all grown up and kewl at earlier ages.
I suspect many of them have parents who would just as soon have them grow up and leave already because the tweens are no longer easy to handle and there's just not enough time to properly interact with their children between work and the stress of trying to pay bills and keep a roof over one's head. (Not to mention the incessant infantiliation of adults by media and advertising...you can be a kid forever, dude - just buy those toys, you deserve fun!)

Haele

[Agschmid]

13. I just don't feel that your personal observations...

Should be read as facts.

You would need to actually do a scientific study to really come up with a theory like that.

[Agschmid]

19. Oh so flamebait then?

[pnwmom]

8. Are their parents pecking on smart phones? n/t

Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2013, 08:31 PM - Edit history (1)

[fishwax]

14. The kids i see don't seem that way

The town i work in is thick with kids--i see them all the time on my way to work as they play in the park or stroll the river with their parents/nannies/day care classes. They all seem pretty kidlike to me

[MissB]

20. My son loves to go to the coffee shop. Without me.

He's 15, so he can. He usually goes with a group of school friends. He has fun.

If I were there, he might or might not. He's a teen. It is what it is.

Edited to add: when they were younger, all four of us (dh and I plus two kids) would go together. The kids have been taking multi-week bike trips since they were wee kids, so they are used to conversations with random strangers. But I give my teens space now, because it just isn't as cool to go to the coffee shop with mom, unless they are broke.

[Agschmid]

23. It's flamebait because you keep fighting everyone like this...

That's why.

[Agschmid]

30. Nope I am a gay man who will not be having kids.

So I guess you'll tell me I should stay out of it then? Your point is moot.

[MissB]

24. Yep, that is odd.

We always forced them to join us (see edited post, above). I think having them converse with strangers (safely) from a young age has made them more communicative in general.

[greatauntoftriplets]

26. Do you know these kids' parents?

If not, you don't know their circumstances.

[greatauntoftriplets]

31. What's so funny?

You say you're not judging them, so what's your point?

[truedelphi]

35. + 1 n/t

[greatauntoftriplets]

36. Isn't it up to the parents that the children have a life that makes them "joyous beings"?

[Agschmid]

46. +1

[truedelphi]

33. When we moved from bedroom community of affluent Marin Calif.,

Out here to rural Lake County, it was so much fun seeing kids playing out on the front lawn, or over at the parks. Not in organized sports (those leagues for kids are here too) but just unsupervised old fashioned play.

In bedroom communities, kids are soccer- mom driven from one activity to another. From the time they are eight or so.

[Agschmid]

41. Also this...

But that's another rant for another day

Makes it flamebait, shall I count ye the ways?

[Fumesucker]

43. There is a large football/soccer/softball complex right up the road from me

It's deserted most of the time, no one there at all unless there is an organized event going on, not even any sidewalks to allow kids to walk to it, they either ride there in a car or don't go.

I don't see kids in my area playing pick up games at the local park like we did when I was that age, I suppose there were organized sporting events for kids back then but I don't actually recall seeing any outside of HS sports.

[Agschmid]

45. I wish I would have played organized sports it would have taught me...

Not to be a fat... which is how kids learn that in their younger years. Developmentally, organized play is very important and it's becoming less and less common. During the school day, recess and lunch have been cut so that the academics are increased. How utterly dumb. We used to get an hour for lunch!

[LeftyMom]

38. The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect

for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

-Socrates

[GreenEyedLefty]

39. It wasn't me, thankfully.

I took my kids to dinner last night and it was delightful.

My husband was out with a friend, I didn't feel like cooking, so out we went.

It was fabulous. Not an electronic device in sight. Just talking and laughing with my kids.

[Agschmid]

47. Oh BTW...

Byebyebyebyebye!