h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3531432.stm

Or just another step down the road of ever decreasing attention spans, like putting DVD players in cars

Whatever happened to the days when our parents used to squeeze their kids into the seat in the cart and God forbid you should move!

Our local supermarket has these little "kids grocery carts" which small kids can tear around with. Not only do their parents not ensure they stay close to them, their kids are usually veering all over the aisle, ramming into people, blocking people who are ACTUALLY shopping, and generally making pests of themselves.

They also have these huge plastic cars that parents can push their kids around in. Not only are they bigger that carts, but the parents leave them blocking aisles, often with their screaming child who wants to be pushed around, not left standing still in the aisle.

If you are out to do shopping, have a child who can't sit still or needs to be entertained, get a frigging sitter and leave the kid at home....

These are usually the same people who are annoying enough when their children aren't with them!

Nothing pisses me off more than trying to get my shopping done while two women are catching up on neighbourhood gossip, with their carts blocking the aisle, people who insist on reading all the labels on the package from 4 feet away while discussing the relative merits of a certain brand while standing in the middle of the aisle, and it takes five progessively louder AXCUSE MEs before they notice you and then either ignore you or glare at you and mover their cart 1/2 an inch (often the wrong way) and then make a snide remark to their friend/husband.

I don't waste time anymore wuith the other 3 EXCUSE MEs. If they don't move after I say it once, I say it VERY LOUDLY and move their cart for them.

this is part of why I do so much of my grocery shopping late at night.

Let's indulge children a little bit more, then they need never learn to be polite and well-mannered

*puts that rant back in the drawer for later*

Fb

Strange as it may seem, kids running wild in supermarkets doesn't bother me. I dodge around them and their parents, and all the otehr slow moving punters (that's about 99% of all customers in my book) and just get on with it.

Oh you're just so bloody it hurts

Internet shopping. No kids. Helps my bad back too.

Jules

I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. Children have short attention spans, and frankly *I* get bored with grocery shopping. My kid was never a problem at the supermarket, but rarely do I make it through a store without hearing at least one tantrum from someone else's.

The most logical answer to boredom is activity, and I never went anywhere without small toys and books for my son to play with when he was younger. But it does get tiresome picking up things a toddler throws out of a basket for a 'game'. Having something attached to the handlebar means you wouldn't have to constantly watch for dropped toys while also trying to remember a list, keep track of a total, compare products, read labels, etc. And if the gizmo is educational then it's a bonus. If it's also teaching about things in context (learning about food in a place where there's lots of it), fantastic! Beats the hell out of more video games.

Unfortunatly, given the law of averages, anytime you want your child to go around the supermarket in an educational shopping trolley they will all be invariably already taken or broken.

VCRs and DVDs in minivans aren't necessarily the evil they're made out to be either. The road trips we took with our families in the 60s and 70s are a thing of the past. With superhighways (or dual carriageways, is it?) replacing all of the 'fun' roads we used to travel road trips are BORING. Sad but true. Keeping children occupied reduces stress on the driver leading to fewer road hazards. Now there are lots of things to do on a road trip besides watch movies, but I can't think of anything I could do (as a child) on a road trip that would keep me occupied for six, eight or more hours at a stretch.

What makes these things - and any electronic diversions - bad is that they are replacing parent/child interaction in these situations. If a parent is involved with their child in addition to using these things then there isn't as much of a downside and in the long run it makes parenting easier on us than our parents had it (in that respect).

Sorry, I seem to have rattled on a bit...

Both from a personal perspective and as a researcher who deals with this stuff at work, I have more problems with this than just "replacing the parent interactions" bit. For me, the big problem is that we, as a society:

* are not giving children ample opportunity and incentive to learn how to deal with both boredom and frustration. these skills are no joking matter, and down the road can have an impact on all sorts of things from drug taking to job performance. simply put, children need to learn how to cope with these without an electronic prosthesis.

When I was small, we went on drives every aturday. In those days (no seatbelts, slippy seats, and zero crash bags, we were free to move about the car, standing up between the seats or looking out the back window of the car. While, yes, car trips are much more safe, it means that kids are strapped in and, many times, unable to look out the windows as easily.

I don't want to go back to the days when every car trip had the potential for serious injury or death, but I think kids are missing out on some of the things we kids experienced.

When my mother was dating a fellow once, he built me a box to sit on in the back seat.... sort of a prehistoric booster-seat. It had a space underneath for books and toys, and provided me with a great view of the road. Of course, it was deadly as Hell, but I loved it. I recall sitting on it like Queen of the Castle.... Such fun.

Actually, I recall a lot of our little trips. We often went to various sandpits out in the country. I flew kites, ran about like a maniac, and generally had a grand time. I remember the one we used to go to where there was a long tree root coming out of one of the tall sand cliffs. If you pumped it up and down, sand ran out like water from a pump.

The only time I recall anything bad happening was once when we had a barbeque and I stepped on a hot coal. Owwie, owwie.... I think I was about 4, at the time....

Well now, several points to deal with here.

Point taken about freeways being a lot more boring than regular roads broe - when I was a kid we used to drive from London to Liverpool most summers for our holiday. The M1 had not long been open, and only from just north of London to somewhere around Rugby - the rest of the journey was on the A5... and some other roads I don't remember.

What I do remember though is hating the hour or so we spent on the M1 because there was so little to look at. And there was no radio or tape deck in the car. My mother would have been in the back with my baby sister, and my dad was concentrating on the driving, so all I had to amuse myself with was'Oh, there's that pond that that was there last year' and 'Oh, that cottage is still there then'

In the supermarket or in any shop however, there was always something to look at and wonder about. I was never bored in shops and never needed any diversion to keep me from getting bored.

Mikey - I think you've hit the nail on the head. Kids are not learning how to deal with boredom, and that's what leads to the short attention spans - they need constant input and are losing the ability to use their mind to provide their own entertainment, in other words - they are losing their imagination!

My first full time job after leaving school was a repetive one - taking trays off the end of a machine and stacking them up for eight hours a day. I never got bored - there was always something going on ni my head. Sometimes a whole day would go by in a flash because my head was always somewhere else.

Good point also about kids being strapped in Mudhooks. Although my parents' stern look was enough to keep me in my seat anyway Unless an accident propelled me through the windscreen of course, which thankfully never happened.

Mikey - "I think you've hit the nail on the head. "

"Kids are not learning how to deal with boredom, and that's what leads to the short attention spans - they need constant input and are losing the ability to use their mind to provide their own entertainment, in other words - they are losing their imagination!"

They are losing their imaginations
It is a lot of what makes us human, innovative and better learners ,teachers and helpers.

The world is not at our feet "on demand" as the TV and computer say.
We cannot just delete the unpleasantries and mistakes.

Imagination is more important than intelligence- Einstein

Have you not heard - they are putting DVDs on shopping trolleys now to keep the kids amused while mother shops . Are they supplying the hammers for the little darlings to amuse themselves with or will they just use their feet when the sweets aren't forthcoming.

Websailor

Hi, Everyone,

My, that stirred up a lot of comment. I agree with almost everyone. My kids stayed at home while I shopped until they were old enough to help and carry. I couldn't afford to expose them, and me, to all the temptations on offer, for one thing.

I totally agree they are not able to cope with boredom, but must be spoonfed activites. Not ALL of them, I hasten to add. There are lots of children and young people who are well able to occupy and entertain themselves.

One thing that hits me regularly though. They cannot cope with SILENCE In fact finding silence these days unless you live in the countryside is very difficult. Many seem frightened by silence. They also miss so much they could hear if they weren't deafened by manufactured noise.

That is why I like to get out and feed the birds in the very early morning. The golden sound of silence is wonderful, before the birds start singing. Then the beautiful natural sounds as the natural world wakes up is a real tonic.

Websailor

When I went on long car journeys as a kid I never got bored. I was too busy being sick.

Well, there's one solution...

Oh wait...

Me, too