This makes me feel very good about the parenting/lifestyle choices we have made (no tv, limited toys (in fact, every day I feel my kids need fewer toys), limited number of activities, limited computer time, but lots of time to play, read, notice what is going on in the world, interact with family and friends, create things).
I don't know what the deal with "permissive parenting" is. Personally, I have limits. I think we all do. I see kids doing things that I would not allow my kids to do to me because it is just downright disrespectful of another human being and it makes my skin crawl. I don't know how people can let their own kids treat them that way (they allow hitting, scratching, being climbed all over, etc). I'm not a total dictator, but our kids know there are limits and they know which ones are worth testing and which ones aren't:)
I also think that everyone having an Ipod and a cell-phone puts people in these incredible little bubbles. One day I saw a teenager walking down the street with his Ipod in one ear and his cell phone up to his other ear. It just struck me that he was probably oblivious to his surroundings (not that they were great surroundings to take in, but still...). I was just recently remarking to someone that I don't like to watch tv because I prefer to have natural experiences.
Anyhow, sorry. Didn't mean to veer completely off the subject:P It's a subject that dh and I talk about from time to time and I think it's so interesting because dh had a computer when he was like 12 (which would have been 1983) and has used computers and been "online" since 1985 and yet he prefers to read on his commute to work and we have very little in the way of popular technology, if you will. We don't even have a portable cd player:)
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I don't know what the deal with "permissive parenting" is. Personally, I have limits. I think we all do. I see kids doing things that I would not allow my kids to do to me because it is just downright disrespectful of another human being and it makes my skin crawl. I don't know how people can let their own kids treat them that way (they allow hitting, scratching, being climbed all over, etc). I'm not a total dictator, but our kids know there are limits and they know which ones are worth testing and which ones aren't:)
I also think that everyone having an Ipod and a cell-phone puts people in these incredible little bubbles. One day I saw a teenager walking down the street with his Ipod in one ear and his cell phone up to his other ear. It just struck me that he was probably oblivious to his surroundings (not that they were great surroundings to take in, but still...). I was just recently remarking to someone that I don't like to watch tv because I prefer to have natural experiences.
Anyhow, sorry. Didn't mean to veer completely off the subject:P It's a subject that dh and I talk about from time to time and I think it's so interesting because dh had a computer when he was like 12 (which would have been 1983) and has used computers and been "online" since 1985 and yet he prefers to read on his commute to work and we have very little in the way of popular technology, if you will. We don't even have a portable cd player:)