Autumn 2015 - The Pre and Primary School Guide | Page 8

parenting Childhood now vs then Kate, a graphic designer and mother of 3 from Johannesburg helps us take a look at childhood, now versus 30 + years back. She recalls her childhood growing up and how things have changed. I grew up more than 30 years ago, an 80’s baby. I remember my childhood packed with lots of fun made up games, and outdoor activities. Now, having children of my own, I watch them over weekends and during their holidays and can’t help but feel a little sad for them. But perhaps I am mistaken, maybe the children of this era are having fun and I am just being a nostalgic old fart. We did a little survey and asked a few questions to both the oldies and the younger generation just to see how much things have changed? Are the youth of today growing up deprived of good clean fun during their childhood years or are they enjoying the advantages of choice and technology that we didn’t have? What is a quality childhood? The results of our survey gave us a bit more clarity. Some of the feedback was obvious and some quite surprising. We posed the questions, where did or do you live? The obvious, response was that most of my contemporaries grew up in a house with a garden. The youth of today live in security complexes, estates and clusters homes, many without gardens. We (the oldies) roamed the streets and made friends with all the kids living in our neighbourhood. We could freely have a soccer or tennis game in the street. The youth of today are generally restricted to their townhouse complex, and if they live in a house are not to walk out the electrified, barb-wired front gate without supervision and never on their own. Many families don’t even know their neighbours, and children are not encouraged to make friends with strangers in the street. The children of today generally get to school with their parents in a car or make use of school transport companies, whether their school is 200m from home or not. Kids of yesteryear, caught a bus, rode on their bicycles or walked to school. And our grandparents would have to trudge 6 30 kilometres in the snow to get to school, or so they told us! However our results show, that kids of today still enjoy