Tag: Children

Reflections on Childhood vs. Today’s Digital Society


Friday April 25th, 2025 is upon us! As the year goes along the weather has been up and down folks, rainy, then clear, chilly then warm. It is typical for New England herein Massachuetts.

Anyway, let discuss electronics. As we all know and see daily, no one goes anywhere today without a cell phone, computers are practically in every home in america and as gaming consoles. They call these improvements to society. Well, I question that really and I am now 69 years old, and live alone and I have the big tv, the Xbox, Computers and yes a cell phone too. Why do I question it I am asked when I say, this? Well my answer is, the cell phones, the computers, the gaming consoles and even the tvs, isolate hmans from one another. We have begun to rely on each device in our own ways, and that, pulls us away from humanity in it’s own way, making thing more impersonal between us.

I was born in 1956 folks, which simple additionand subtraction would tell anyone. When I grew up, we had land lines for phone, no cell phones. We had tubed tvs, computers were not here, and gaming consoles were not around. We were told go outside and play, have fun, but come home for supper, and definitely get home before the street lights came on. We played games like, 1,2,3 Red Light, Tag, and sports. We roller skated, rode sleds in the winter, went to parks. Yes we found friends that way in person, we navigated through, and found people we actually liked to hang with. What happened to America, I am not sure.

When Iwa s a kid, you screwed up at home or out on the streets you paid a price. Mom would smack ya on the head or ass and ground ya. Or if the offense was bad enough, dad would step in and ya would get a beating. Today we lve in society where all of that is frowned upon and illegal. And what we get for results are ignorant, angry, nasty kids. we get more narracistic kids, too. We get more kids into drugs and alcohol also as they look for excitment, to occupy their time. Instea dof controlling their kids, parents these days let them run wild and very seldom know exactly where their children are or what they are doing. Thus, we end up witha society that lacks manners, ethics and morals, we grew up with in my generation.

What happened to, saying Thank You, Your Welcome, May I, Please? Or can I join in? what happened to trying to fit in, instead of trying to take over? Anothe rproblem I have seen as I age, is simple, folks don’t seem to undersatnd a basic fact, Ilearned in the Service, respect one another, and remember before you can be a leader folks, you have to be a good follower. By following you learn.

I noticed changes that happend in the 1980’s, when Bil Cosby had his tv show. He told everyone, you don’t hit your children, you talk to them. Well, that, doesn’t always work folks, as we all know. Then in the 1990s, I noticed more anger, more cliques and more seperations in society happening. The Republicans began their seperation from all, and things got meaner.Politically, I blame that mess, on the Democrats for not interacting and allowing it all to happen.

By the 2000’s Americans have begun lazier, more rude and antisocial. Our interactions now happen in bars/ taverns, clubs, then any where else. Dating has become online and all electronic now. Profiles are written which lie or are fake, people use fake photographs and build themselves up to be someone they arent’ to get attention. Also, there is more fear of narsacist, violence,stalking, and people out to grab your money or property. Then, we approach the biggest fear on dating sites these days, the constant questions about sexual interactions, on dates. If sex is mentioned on a first dtae, thats it for me, I am out. I was always taught, that happens as a relationship develops not instantly. So you can see the differences in society also in the stores and malls too. Parents take their kids shopping and the children get unruly, or run alone and off from their parent, or wnat everything they see. It’s sad that today’s generation doesn’t understand the word no, or you can’t. Greed comes into play, I want that, my friends have it. Peer pressure is strong in today’s society on our children, and today’s parents don’t see it. The kids do!

Then today on top of all the above changes in society, in schools and at home, even children have ahard time fitting in with one another. More fighting, arguing, happens then evever before. Anger, rules folks, and I don’t blame the children I blame the parents. Wake up folks, it’s up to the parents and adults to steer us back to calmer days once more. It will take decades, to once again, get back to an American Society that is warm, welcoming, patienent and interacting fully. There is no short term solution, to the job markets, economy, education, or lifestyle folks. We have lost so much, through the 1980s tp now, I wonder, Where did the United States I grew up in Go?

Turn it Around America


Hello world, I am now 59 and 3 days old and it seems to me the more the world changes, the worst it gets, in many ways. When I grew up there was no X-Box, Playstation, or any other gaming device, no one had home computers and no one could afford them. Now The world is built on computers and video games for entertainment, work and so much more. Computers control our utilities and defenses, and most of our children too, it’s a sad commentary for sure, but it is true.

We went from children outside running through the woods and playing with others and exploring nature, to children sitting in front of a big screen tv, playing war games and car games and sports games too. What happened to the america of old where children played games outside like football, baseball, basketball, hide and seek, and war/ What happened to a child running because they need to for fun and to burn off energy? What happened to Ice skating and sledding in the winter, riding bikes in the summer, and so much more? We have become a society built on computers and gaming systems and our children’s waistlines grow and they get mouthy if you stop them from playing games and make em do work. Sad isn’t it?

While some advances are good like improvements in medicine, education,and yes even defensive weapons and tactic, some suck point blank.  Lets face it folks, what we refuse to admit these days is simple, some things were better off the old way, not the ways of today.Things are too simple for many, and making america’s adults and children too lazy. we need to change it back in many areas for no matter what some think, the old folks who preceded us had many of them right. But, we are too stubborn and set in our ways today many americans and there would be wars if you took away the big screened televisions, Playstations, X-boxes and Nintendo’s , children would go crazy and parents wouldn’t know how to handle their children anymore in today’s world. Sadly, it’s true believe me, do you if you were born in the 1960s or earlier like me, really remember you asking mom or dad for a game that was sixty bucks a shot and getting it, nope, here is Monopoly they said or Checkers. Wake up american’s we spoil our children rotten and give them everything and wham we end up with a society that expects everything handed to them on a platter, sad isn’t it? My parents said earn it son, work for it delivery papers if you have to save soda cans, wash cars, do something and earn money on your own. It’s what all American children should be doing these days, learn to respect others, how to sell items and do things and make money on your own, of course parents should teach them. Will they, I doubt it, for parents today as lazy and scared of their children too, there is no more, spare the rod spoil the child allowed and punishing a child is sending them to a room full of toys anyway. Sad isn’t it? 

As future generations of Americans grow fatter, lazier and less functional than the older generations, they also grow more disrespectful of elders and get to think they know it all and make so many mistakes they ultimately end up arrested, or illegal, or battered and beaten up by others. They lose the skills to communicate, to cooperate and get along in society and go afoul of  society in general. Sadly, American Jails fill with young men and women who could be saved by just teaching them to be respectful and tolerant and considerate and giving them guidance , so they fit in. Instead we forget to teach them correctly and we end up with hoodlums, bums, thieves, criminals and in the end a society racked with crime and ugliness. Sad isn’t it?

           We need to turn it around America, and that starts in the home with parents! Do You job parents discipline, guide and teach, and stop letting machines babysit your children!

 

Childhood Dreams !


       Childhood Dreams, we all have them don’t we, I want to be like Dad, I want to be like mom, I want to rule the World, I want to be King or President, I want to be a Doctor, A Lawyer, a Chemist or something else.  We all have dream as children that are unfulfilled as we reach adulthood , sadly that is how life goes isn’t it? 

         I dreamed of walking on the moon, dissecting creatures to find out what made them live, comic book characters and stories of glory. I ran the woods as a kid, studying creatures small and large and exploring nature and finding myself happiest alone in those woods. I was dragged back to civilians and real life by parents who hated my disappearing that way, yet it wa sthe only place I felt safe, how about you? Did you dream of happiness, a family that was together and caring, a family of support and love and not find one? I know thats what happened to me, so I went out and as I grew older I adopted surrogate families and parents and people who cared. It was to me a natural reaction to a world filled with anger, pain, fighting, feuding and more, so I did it. What would you do I ask you?

        I grew up hoping to be a comic book hero and to save the world. I wanted to be the Flash, then the Green Lantern, one for speed to avoid trouble and reach it to stop it, and the other to will my way through life with a ring on my finger that could defend and protect me and save the world.  Later my fantasies would turn to being Captain America or Thor, or even a Member of The Fantastic Four, but none of that would happen of course, but comic books saved me, gave me morals to think on, and desires and dreams a child should have, good ones.

       My childhood was spent running the woods, reading comics and books and trying to stay away from a family that destroyed itself in violence and screaming and more, sad isn’t it? But, stop and think folks, more and more children are doing this these days in America, running from home to home looking for acceptance and caring and love, why? Because we are too busy making money and dreaming of where to spend it and to stay up with the Jones next door. I wish to God my childhood had been different, my older brother sad he wished we were rich growing up the last time I talked to him, me, I didn’t care about money we had enough and a home and clothes and food. What we didn’t have was a caring, compassionate family, and an environment of peace. We had violence, yelling, screaming, beatings, swearing and drinking and physical and mental pains. Why, well I think my step-father said it best as I was growing up once, as he said ” Some People are just not made to have children or to raise them”, He was talking about mom, but should have looked in the mirror too. Sad isn’t it how children get born to people who have no idea how to raise or care for them and who basically abuse them and ruin their addition to society by it all.

        So when we all look back at criminals, the mentally ill, the abused and dangerous, we forget to review their childhoods and their inner pains, problems and diseases they may have suffered through.  We should look closer and see if they are mentally ill, or really a societal menace or not, it would help to solve some things in life and the world.

        I will close this today, with a statement for all to think about, in the world and among the children are many who suffer endless abuse, sufferings, beatings and verbal abuse from parents who never wanted them or cared to have them. My greatest Question is this, Do the poor children in these situation, with Attention Deficit Disorder, Hyper-Activity, and more deserve what they get? No, so someone should do something or at least as a country and world we should be more aware of these things and try to help. If we can’t, then we are failing not only the children and their dreams, by the world as a human society!

 

 

Don’t Think the missing parent is missing on their own!


        Today’s subject may upset some people, and some children of people who were raised by second parents, like step-moms, or step-dads. But the subject must be discussed because I find the fact the some people think, because their original birth parent is not with them growing up that we forget them, don’t love them or like being replaced or that we left on our own free will, we didn’t. Parents leave their children behind for many different reason and if the parent is decent they will come back later and try to straighten out the feelings their children have of abandonment. We didn’t ask to be divorced, nor did we ask for the circumstances we had at the time, and not always are we responsible for leaving, we were forced out by the parent your living with, always remember that! Choice had to be made at the time of the leaving parents departure, like where would my kid or kids be better off, why would they be better off there and would  I or could i raise them on my own. For many fathers the truth is they won’t be able to handle raising a child on their own, they work too much and they can’t handle all of it alone. Even if most father’s won’t admit it it is true! 

        No father, or mother would voluntarily walk away from their child, unless they are on Alcohol or Drug Addicted, or Mentally Ill in some way.So the assumption by many children missing one parent or another, is the automatically to blame the missing parent. Wrong folks, it is more likely the parent you grew up with, the mother is the one that asked for the divorced and forced the father out for her own reasons. So reevaluate it and see the truth.