Our Kids Will Do It Differently

I got inspired to write an article when I took my 7-year-old roller skating.  My sisters and I lived at the roller rink when we were growing up.  Times were so simple "back then".  I thought about all the things I want to teach my kids that kids don't know how to do today, like bake a cake from scratch, jump rope rhymes and make an empty pop can stick to our shoe while we walk.  Ever since my daughter was born, I have lived vicariously through her and at times found myself depressed because toys that we played with as kids just aren't made the same anymore.  One Christmas, Santa brought her a sit and spin, a princess castle for Barbies, a wooden baby crib, a vanity table, and some smaller toys that my husband and I played with when we were growing up.  We ended up getting rid of all these toys before the following Christmas because they either fell apart or didn't work right.  Even the sit and spin had lights and music to it and it didn't even spin all that fast.  Talk about a hit of reality.

Yesterday, right before dinner, my 7-year-old started taking the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher and "washed" them by hand.  Of course, she was just rinsing them under cold water so I intervened and taught her the right way to wash dishes by hand.  She made it all the way to having to dry the dishes and when I saw that she wasn't drying the dishes well enough, she said, "this is too hard, I'm going to watch cartoons...."  Yup, that's right.  Life is way too easy for our kids these days.

I invite you to read  Our Kids Will Do It Differently  and read the comments that other people are making.  It has brought quite a bit of attention and it's comforting to know that I'm not alone being an "old fashioned" parent in the world today.