Shopping for the grandsons

Occasionally I get the odd warning from my daughter about what is appropriate and what is not when it comes to gifts for the grandsons. (No weapons, no musical instruments, no toys for ages 12 and up.) It's surprising that she's not yet sent me this article - Pray for Coal: the 10 most dangerous toys of all times. I remember playing with at least two of these items as a kid - the lawn darts and the Creepy Crawler maker. 

The items that didn't make the list really surprised me. There is no listing for BB-guns or bows and arrows. Nothing about the metal slingshots with which we used to fire ball caps at very high velocities. Our primary targets for any toy that was projectile in nature were other children - siblings, buddies, cousins, neighbor kids - anyone handy who could not beat us up or out run us. Of course, we used corn knives, pitchforks, scythes, and other tools as a toys (when I was a little boy growing up on the prairie). What's a pirate without a farm implement after all? Does this explain why some of my friends still go by their childhood names of Gimp, Lefty and Cyclops?

The studies of today's "net genners" tell us that these kids are a very protected group. Thinking back on my own concerns and actions while raising my Gen X daughter (born in 1973) and Net Gen son (born in 1986), the differences are startling and I don't like to think the result of loving one child more than the other. Brady got a bike helmet; Carrie didn't. Brady had a car seat; I don't remember even buckling Carrie up. We put safety plugs in electrical sockets when Brady was a toddler. I think we just tried to keep forks away from Carrie. We locked Brady out of the storage area under the sink where we kept the Drano but thought it was cute when Carrie would hide there. Brady and his peers went to schools with security cameras, metal detectors, and police officers patrolling the halls. I believe Carrie got a whistle.

I don't know that my grandsons' cohort has a generational name yet. I am sensing that these kids may well be even more protected that the Net Gens. I only hope we can protect them without making them fearful - especially when it comes to virtual environments. It will be a balancing act. 

Comments

[Jane Hyde]

Hooray to all you say! I think about this a lot. When I was a child we played in the woods, on the shores of the cove and the bay, in the closed amusement park during winter (where we'd climb on the rickety old wooden rollercoaster), and one ever stopped us. And I was one of the tame ones, and a girl! When I was in junior high we'd go out weekends, my friend and I, on all day bike rides to neighboring towns. No one worried about anything, even though my parents were about as conservative as they come, in lots of ways.

My own children got into mild trouble with bow and arrow, beebee gun, and an exploding abandoned car. The boys, anyway. One of them, anyway.

But now the middle class kids are wrapped in cotton wool -- no, polyfiber -- and transported from one engagement to another. What's gained, what's lost? It's a lot to think about.

Oh -- meanwhile, the media they are offered (in many childrens' booksand movies, and on tv) is post-modern and sarcastic, if not cynical. What gives?