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ITN News - Lost Childhood

Earlier tonight there was a feature run on the ITN News called the LOST CHILDHOOD. Quoting and interviewing children aged from 7 -10, stating that they had worries about School Exams, Terrorism and crime as just a few examples. IMHO, I believe it is the Media creating a load of hype over nothing. What has a 7 to 10 year old got to worry about!
Worry to me is worrying about whether you can make the next payment on your mortgage, or pay the bills, or if you can afford to buy your kids a pair of shoes etc?
It is my view that the kids today have never had it so good. They get everything they ask for. Compare that to the kids of the same age in the 50's and 60's even earlier if needed.

Last year I asked my 10 year old grandson what he would like for Chrismas, his answer? A Fridge - A fcuking fridge! I said what do you want a fridge for?
He said it would save him coming out of bedroom for a drink. I managed to get a look in his bedroom a few weeks ago, it was like Aladdins cave, DVD Player, video, Tv, gameboy etc. All I had in my bedroom when I was a kid, was a bloody bed.
What a load of bollocks from ITN.

Anybody agree - disagree?
BTW- he didn't get the fridge! FFS
 
Rackcatchplunger said:
Earlier tonight there was a feature run on the ITN News called the LOST CHILDHOOD. Quoting and interviewing children aged from 7 -10, stating that they had worries about School Exams, Terrorism and crime as just a few examples. IMHO, I believe it is the Media creating a load of hype over nothing. What has a 7 to 10 year old got to worry about!
Worry to me is worrying about whether you can make the next payment on your mortgage, or pay the bills, or if you can afford to buy your kids a pair of shoes etc?
It is my view that the kids today have never had it so good. They get everything they ask for. Compare that to the kids of the same age in the 50's and 60's even earlier if needed.

Last year I asked my 10 year old grandson what he would like for Chrismas, his answer? A Fridge - A fcuking fridge! I said what do you want a fridge for?
He said it would save him coming out of bedroom for a drink. I managed to get a look in his bedroom a few weeks ago, it was like Aladdins cave, DVD Player, video, Tv, gameboy etc. All I had in my bedroom when I was a kid, was a bloody bed.
What a load of balls from ITN.

Anybody agree - disagree?
BTW- he didn't get the fridge! FFS


These are the people that end up with their neighbours saying “they were such quiet people, never had trouble, kept themselves to themselves....etc, etc after slaughtering the local population in a McDonalds.

Doesn’t have an “interest” in guns…..does he? :D
 
Rackcatchplunger said:
...It is my view that the kids today have never had it so good. T...

From a materialistic point of view, yes but that doesn't necessarily mean they're better off. Kids should be out getting grubby and having fun with others. Some kids today can't even string a decent sentence together because their best friend is the latest electronic gadget. :evil:
 
Rackcatchplunger said:
Earlier tonight there was a feature run on the ITN News called the LOST CHILDHOOD. Quoting and interviewing children aged from 7 -10, stating that they had worries about School Exams, Terrorism and crime as just a few examples. IMHO, I believe it is the Media creating a load of hype over nothing. What has a 7 to 10 year old got to worry about!
Worry to me is worrying about whether you can make the next payment on your mortgage, or pay the bills, or if you can afford to buy your kids a pair of shoes etc?
It is my view that the kids today have never had it so good. They get everything they ask for. Compare that to the kids of the same age in the 50's and 60's even earlier if needed.

Last year I asked my 10 year old grandson what he would like for Chrismas, his answer? A Fridge - A fcuking fridge! I said what do you want a fridge for?
He said it would save him coming out of bedroom for a drink. I managed to get a look in his bedroom a few weeks ago, it was like Aladdins cave, DVD Player, video, Tv, gameboy etc. All I had in my bedroom when I was a kid, was a bloody bed.
What a load of balls from ITN.

Anybody agree - disagree?
BTW- he didn't get the fridge! FFS

That news woke me up this morning whislt having my first coffee, there is nothing better than starting the day by screaming SHUT THE FUNK UP! At the box.
I totally agree with you RCP, its the same as the recent case of an increase in bullying by kids using mobile phones and PC's, if they can't play nice take all of the devices off them I say!
 
datumhead said:
Rackcatchplunger said:
Earlier tonight there was a feature run on the ITN News called the LOST CHILDHOOD. Quoting and interviewing children aged from 7 -10, stating that they had worries about School Exams, Terrorism and crime as just a few examples. IMHO, I believe it is the Media creating a load of hype over nothing. What has a 7 to 10 year old got to worry about!
Worry to me is worrying about whether you can make the next payment on your mortgage, or pay the bills, or if you can afford to buy your kids a pair of shoes etc?
It is my view that the kids today have never had it so good. They get everything they ask for. Compare that to the kids of the same age in the 50's and 60's even earlier if needed.

Last year I asked my 10 year old grandson what he would like for Chrismas, his answer? A Fridge - A fcuking fridge! I said what do you want a fridge for?
He said it would save him coming out of bedroom for a drink. I managed to get a look in his bedroom a few weeks ago, it was like Aladdins cave, DVD Player, video, Tv, gameboy etc. All I had in my bedroom when I was a kid, was a bloody bed.
What a load of balls from ITN.

Anybody agree - disagree?
BTW- he didn't get the fridge! FFS


These are the people that end up with their neighbours saying “they were such quiet people, never had trouble, kept themselves to themselves....etc, etc after slaughtering the local population in a McDonalds.

Doesn’t have an “interest” in guns…..does he? :D


Fortanetly, big changes since, bought him a bike for his Birthday and tends to get out more with his mates. I used the fridge business as an example of kids thoughts today(it is true). I am not dissapointed with him as he is turning out to be a nice kid.
 
I remember as a kid being scared of nuclear war - this was at a time when all the CND fools were demonstrating and blathering on about World War 3 and nuclear winter. I remember sneaking a look at the odd few minutes of the tv drama 'Threads' and walking around under the impression that there would be a nuclear strike on Britain some time in the near future. As kids we viewed nuclear weapons with a kind of horrified fascination and really thought that a nuclear war might be imminent. A lot of adults apparantly felt the same way. They had no excuse though. I was still in junior school.

You had a deprived childhood Rackcatchplunger if all you had in your bedroom was a bloody bed. I at least had a lot of toy soldiers, a load of action man kit and some toy guns - probably why I became a squaddy.....

I am profoundly grateful that I was part of what was one of the last generations of kids to have a 'childhood'; war comics, days spent cycling or rampaging in the woods or just kicking a football around. Walking to school come rain or hail or shine, no political correctness or risk assesments. No computers, video games, play stations, dvds or internet. No drug dealers preying on us and just a shouted instruction not to talk to strange men and to be back in time for tea as we disappeared out of the front door in the mornings. No mobile phones.
If two lads had a fight or used harsh words at school nobody called the police and you knew that if you stepped too far out of line the cane was waiting.

I feel sorry for today's kids, they are really missing out.
 
I kid you not John - I was brought up in the 50s, I may have had the odd toy (lead) soldier and comics, that was about it. Your special toy was the one you got for Christmas or your birthday. And you treasured them.
Don't get me wrong, I had really wonderful caring parents, but times were hard. No violins please - cos I wouldn't change a thing. If anything they made me a better person, who valued things and had respect for my elders.

So what/who would you blame for today's kids missing out?
 
Rackcatchplunger said:
I kid you not John - I was brought up in the 50s, I may have had the odd toy (lead) soldier and comics, that was about it. Your special toy was the one you got for Christmas or your birthday. And you treasured them.
Don't get me wrong, I had really wonderful caring parents, but times were hard. No violins please - cos I wouldn't change a thing. If anything they made me a better person, who valued things and had respect for my elders.

So what/who would you blame for today's kids missing out?

There is more disposable wealth.

In the fifties you had your precious toys that you got for birthdays and christmas.

When I was a kid it was also birthdays and christmas and there were also a lot of toys passed on from friends and neighbours kids who'd outgrown them. There was no disgrace whatsoever attached to receiving something from a jumble sale. A toy was either good or it wasn't. It didn't have to be new.

Big corporations have identified kids as a major market they have targeted them through shrewd and cynical advertising campaigns and marketing.

It is now an immensely big deal to a lot of kids which brand clothes they wear, which electronic games they and consumer durables they own. Its not enough to kick a football around - you need expensive brand label trainers to do it.
My neice is ten. She is already under huge pressure to conform to the material standards of the other kids in school. If you don't have the gear you are almost a 'non person'. She and her peers are exposed to a whole level of adult culture - make up, magazines dealing with sexual issues and dieting issues etc. this is not healthy. They are being robbed of precious years.
Parents buy into it to varying degrees.

Add to this the effect of decades of leftwing domination of the teaching profession - no competitive sports, boys alienated because there are no satisfying outlets or role models for them. Risk assesments and health and safety have played their part. Fear of litigation is endemic and has curtailed the childhood experiences of millions of kids.

The media have played their part; hyping up every parents latent nightmare of paedos and child abduction to sell papers. There were always warnings about 'strange men' and not accepting sweets or rides from strangers but it was left at that. Life was inherently dangerous, risks were taken and blessings were counted. Fortunately nothing worse ever happened to us than the usual cuts and bruises and scrapes.

Children today are bombarded by electronic images, deprived of healthier activities they naturally fall back on computer games, violent movies, play stations, ipods and the rest of it - for the long term benefit of the big corporations and a further loss of traditional chidhood. Advertisers play the pied piper and lead them into junk food land. We now have obese kids.

There are a lot of factors at work but I think that the targeting of children as a market by the big corporations is the worst single reason for the loss of childhood.
 
When I was a kid I'd go out the front door at 9 am round to me mates then spend the day on the Cliffs or Beach playing, back home for tea at 5 then back out playing till it was dark. None of us had many materiel things nor do I remember worrying about much unless it was how to make fire without matches or how many fizzy pop bottles we could find to get the threepence deposit back. They were happy days.

There must have been kiddy fiddlers about but the advice from your parents was simple "don't talk to strangers". You'd have been taught right from wrong and accepting the cosequences of your actions and if you had a problem go and get a policeman, who was someone you looked up to and respected.
 
CutLunchCommando said:
CutLunchCommando said:
Quality of Life does not equal Standard of Living.

In fact I'll expand on that after a certain point increasing Standard of Living leads to decreasing Quality of Life (in the absence of mitigating fators).

The Quality of life is lower now because although the Standard of Living is higher (in the materiel sense) the standards of how people live by is so very low. The Government we have at the moment who should be trying to higher the set of standards by which we live, have in fact allowed the standards of more and more people to become that of animals with no direction or moral code.
 
Rackcatchplunger said:
I kid you not John - I was brought up in the 50s, I may have had the odd toy (lead) soldier and comics, that was about it. Your special toy was the one you got for Christmas or your birthday. And you treasured them.
Don't get me wrong, I had really wonderful caring parents, but times were hard. No violins please - cos I wouldn't change a thing. If anything they made me a better person, who valued things and had respect for my elders.

So what/who would you blame for today's kids missing out?

I got one 'good' present every Christmas.

One year it was a yellow Dinky bulldozer but when I was about 8yrs old, my old Dad bought me one of those Brittains 155mm split-trail field guns! :)

Result? He spent most of Christmas day playing with it before I even got a look in,

'Blimey,' says he, 'It groups brilliantly!' dropping another little 'shell' into Gran's sherry glass. :roll:

By the time I get to have a go, my Mum says,
'Put that away, it's your bed-time!' :cry:

That night I tried to do a sneak raid on my toy cupboard, only to find that my Dad, the crafty old git, had hidden the ruddy gun. In the end I hid his fags and did a deal with him before I could get a hold of my darned present.

Lately I saw a good example of a Brittains 155mm on Ebay, going for silly money, but, between me and my old Dad, we wore mine out!

Maybe that was why I enjoyed being an MFC so much... :D
 
Rackcatchplunger said:
Earlier tonight there was a feature run on the ITN News called the LOST CHILDHOOD. Quoting and interviewing children aged from 7 -10, stating that they had worries about School Exams, Terrorism and crime as just a few examples. IMHO, I believe it is the Media creating a load of hype over nothing. What has a 7 to 10 year old got to worry about!
Worry to me is worrying about whether you can make the next payment on your mortgage, or pay the bills, or if you can afford to buy your kids a pair of shoes etc?
It is my view that the kids today have never had it so good. They get everything they ask for. Compare that to the kids of the same age in the 50's and 60's even earlier if needed.

Last year I asked my 10 year old grandson what he would like for Chrismas, his answer? A Fridge - A fcuking fridge! I said what do you want a fridge for?
He said it would save him coming out of bedroom for a drink. I managed to get a look in his bedroom a few weeks ago, it was like Aladdins cave, DVD Player, video, Tv, gameboy etc. All I had in my bedroom when I was a kid, was a bloody bed.
What a load of balls from ITN.

Anybody agree - disagree?
BTW- he didn't get the fridge! FFS

I think kids must be able to spell the things that they want before they're allowed to have them.

You'd never have to buy them anything thanks to their New Liarbour education. :D

One in seven children struggles to write their name or say the letters of the alphabet after a year at primary school, it emerged yesterday.

Official figures revealed 15 per cent of five year olds are unable to scribble 'mum', 'dad' or their first name from memory.

35 per cent fail to recognise simple words such as 'dog' or 'pen'.

12 per cent can't count to ten.

11 per cent don't understand what addition involves.

8 per cent don't know that in English print is read from left to right and top to bottom.


The five-year-olds who can't write their name after a year in school
 
In my current employment at various times I have to enter childrens bedrooms (no I'm not Gerry McCann) and they are like mini arcades with the amount of electronic gizmos in there, when I was a kid all I had to play with was a stick and a hoop.
 
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