If you are a baby boomer you will remember a childhood filled with adventure; days playing hide and seek, street hockey, family picnics at conservation parks, hop scotch, dodge ball, tag. Our parents left us to our own devices-often not hollering for us to come inside until the sun had set.
We skipped stones in rivers, fished, dug for worms and lost ourselves in the art of play.
We had little in the way of toys and certainly no electronics.
We made our own. We were imaginative and intuitive.
That was the childhood of yesterday.
It's no wonder the baby boomer generation will be remembered as one of the most successful in history.
Our children, the millennial's saw some of this as well.
Much has changed in the last 40 years since I became an educator and a mother.
Today a barren landscape sits before us.
For the most part parks are empty, the roads are devoid of warriors playing ball hockey or tag.
Where have all the children gone?
Are they sitting in front of computers, tablets, wrapped in video games and the never ending droning of baby shark songs?
Is this what childhood has become?
Parents running from one organized activity to another, thinking more is better, with little time for their children to erect block towers, splash around in rain water and dig for worms.
Children are handed tablets in infancy and people think its magnificent that an infant knows how to swipe.
Trust me its not.
This is a generation with their noses buried in cell phones-concerned with who has the most likes and followers, all the while the beauty of what makes a good relationships escapes them.
Let's face it, technology will only become more sophisticated. It is here to stay.
However as a society we must find a way to return to many of the things valued by the childhood of yesterday.
Our children deserve it and we must demand it!
