<p>Well maybe that's the difference. Both my kids work twenty hours a week.</p>
<p>And again, just talking about my own little circle. My kids and their friends definitely have less free time than my friends and I had back then- both groups with lofty academic goals (and yes, I had a job too). The other parents in our circle were just talking about this as a matter of fact. We all used to go to the football games, the bball games. Now The stands in our town are empty. The kids don't go (just the parents). The kids are too busy with their own "to-do" list. Don't want to argue- just my own "those were the days" thoughts.</p>
<p>I had a great childhood even if it wasn't that long ago. I loved growing up in my neighborhood--hanging out with my friends, riding our bikes as far as possible, playing truth or dare, etc. I definitely think my parents had a different childhood when they were growing up and I even notice that the kids I babysit for do things completely differently than I did just a decade ago.</p>
<p>So my question is this: when your kids are upset and frustrated and defend whatever they did with "You just don't understand!" do you think it's fair to counter with "Sure I do, I was a kid once too" when the major point being made with this thread is that in fact childhood experiences were very different between the generations?</p>
<p>kristin - I used the "you just don't understand" line daily in the 70's. I gradually realized that what I meant (and may not be what you meant as a teen) was that I couldn't really articulate what the problem was - or if I could it didn't come out sounding like I was right.<br>
Back to the main topic ... I see a huge fall-off in reading skills in the last 10 years since even the geeky kids have something else to do. School libraries are now investing heavily into books that are "high-low". High age interest, low level reading. To me the "good old days" involved roller skates, tree climbing and book reading.</p>
<p>During the 60s and 70s, my mother was a (very popular) high school teacher. Occasionally, when the topic of discussion was recreational drug use, some student might opine that "you just can't understand". One of her responses was, "Look, I smoked marijuana when it was REALLY illegal. When you had to know black people, and go down in the basement, and lock the doors to do it."</p>
<p>I adore nostalgia. In fact, it is my favorite form of fiction.</p>
<p>My mother tells me stories of being a poor Asian girl from a plantation family in Hawaii and of having a miserable time in high school. There were stabbings in the courtyard, gang violence everywhere, teachers who punished students for asking too many questions, the Lord's prayer read daily (in a public school), unbelievable poverty (think outhouses and unpaved roads), and poisonous racial tension. She tells me of her dreadful classes full of teachers who didn't care reading to students who couldn't care less. She tells me of the union related violence, the strikers being beaten, the race based hostility over every issue ranging from the war in Vietnam to school board elections. Those "hours of free time" were spent working in the field, at home, or at their temple. This is why I can't complain about my hyper programmed, middle class lifestyle; it would be disingenuous and petty. </p>
<p>Ah yes, the good old days: maybe for some, but not for others.</p>