Free-Range Kids? Not exactly
Jun. 1st, 2020 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterFrom CBC comes this view from a CHEO doctor that children this year will experience something akin to a '70s summer:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/covid-19-cheo-child-psychiatrist-welcomes-free-range-summer-with-caveats-1.5588752?cmp=rss
There are a few similarities, to be sure. Outdoor activities are generally considered safer than indoor gatherings during the pandemic. But get the kids outside and they can't roughhouse or play much of any kinds of their usual games with their friends; the swings and slides and play structures and pools at the park are off limits; if they want to walk or cycle to the local corner store to get a popsicle, that may also be impossible with so many shops (if they're open at all) not accepting cash.
The other big similarity is the lack - well, shortage, anyway - of organized group activities like camps, arts and crafts and music lessons or even individual or family activities like visiting farmer's markets, outdoor concerts, art and poetry readings in the park... But just because these things are unavailable, that doesn't necessarily make for long stretches of unstructured time. If anything, children's time, like adults' time, is structured and regimented like never before, even during the "Hurried Child" era of the 1980s and 90s, which led to the whole Free Range Kids era in the first place!
To make matters worse, we've been told that this is going to be a bumper year for ticks! Add this to the usual outdoor summer concerns like mosquitoes, blackflies, poison ivy and other hazardous plant life, heat and air quality advisories, extreme weather, the thinning of the ozone layer and where does that leave us?
I sometimes think back to my own summers in the 1960s and 70s. To be sure, mosquitoes and poison ivy were a thing back then too. So was sunburn, although there was nothing like the level of concern about sun safety that's with us today. Slathering on baby oil or sun tan oil and lying outside in an effort to get a tan was just something a lot of people did back then, although I guess some of us shudder to think of it now or in some cases may be paying for it in more sinister ways. We would get on our bicycles without even thinking about helmets and ride off for a few hours, although personally I never became very comfortable in traffic. Still, I did sometimes cycle to my downtown office or to get groceries in the 1970s, particularly when the buses were on strike.
Speaking of buses, I never thought I would feel exactly nostalgic about bus trips, but it's starting to get to that stage now - the freedom and independence of going off for a few hours on my own to do whatever I please is something I can't readily do at the moment. Most of the places I'd want to go to are not open at the moment and even the most basic trip anywhere seems to take major planning and effort, comparable to what I used to have to do for a full-day or even overnight excursion!
There's no serendipity or spontaneity in our lives now. I miss that.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/covid-19-cheo-child-psychiatrist-welcomes-free-range-summer-with-caveats-1.5588752?cmp=rss
There are a few similarities, to be sure. Outdoor activities are generally considered safer than indoor gatherings during the pandemic. But get the kids outside and they can't roughhouse or play much of any kinds of their usual games with their friends; the swings and slides and play structures and pools at the park are off limits; if they want to walk or cycle to the local corner store to get a popsicle, that may also be impossible with so many shops (if they're open at all) not accepting cash.
The other big similarity is the lack - well, shortage, anyway - of organized group activities like camps, arts and crafts and music lessons or even individual or family activities like visiting farmer's markets, outdoor concerts, art and poetry readings in the park... But just because these things are unavailable, that doesn't necessarily make for long stretches of unstructured time. If anything, children's time, like adults' time, is structured and regimented like never before, even during the "Hurried Child" era of the 1980s and 90s, which led to the whole Free Range Kids era in the first place!
To make matters worse, we've been told that this is going to be a bumper year for ticks! Add this to the usual outdoor summer concerns like mosquitoes, blackflies, poison ivy and other hazardous plant life, heat and air quality advisories, extreme weather, the thinning of the ozone layer and where does that leave us?
I sometimes think back to my own summers in the 1960s and 70s. To be sure, mosquitoes and poison ivy were a thing back then too. So was sunburn, although there was nothing like the level of concern about sun safety that's with us today. Slathering on baby oil or sun tan oil and lying outside in an effort to get a tan was just something a lot of people did back then, although I guess some of us shudder to think of it now or in some cases may be paying for it in more sinister ways. We would get on our bicycles without even thinking about helmets and ride off for a few hours, although personally I never became very comfortable in traffic. Still, I did sometimes cycle to my downtown office or to get groceries in the 1970s, particularly when the buses were on strike.
Speaking of buses, I never thought I would feel exactly nostalgic about bus trips, but it's starting to get to that stage now - the freedom and independence of going off for a few hours on my own to do whatever I please is something I can't readily do at the moment. Most of the places I'd want to go to are not open at the moment and even the most basic trip anywhere seems to take major planning and effort, comparable to what I used to have to do for a full-day or even overnight excursion!
There's no serendipity or spontaneity in our lives now. I miss that.
