The other day, as I was driving home from somewhere with Jack in the back of the car, we spotted the neighbors at the end of the street outside with their son, two years younger than Jack, but one of his favorite people to play with all the same. I stopped and rolled down the window to speak to the Mom and Jack rolled down his to speak to his friend. Before I knew it, he was out of the car and running across the yard laughing. She said it was fine and I said I'd be back after I put the groceries away.

As I lifted the bags into the house I marveled at how strange it was that I was not with Jack. I completely trust the neighbors, it's not that. It's just that we've never really done that. We have arranged playdates where we drop him off and come back later, but never anything ad hoc like that.

It got me to thinking about how at his age, 7 going on 8, I was always out by myself. I would wake in the morning and get on my bike and go up and down our street looking for people to come out and play with me. I would come home at lunch and dinner but otherwise filled my days out on my own or with friends. Sometimes we would sneak into the nearby golf course. Sometimes we crawled through the storm drain pipes that lead down to the river. But we never strayed far. I wondered when society changed so much. When did we stop letting our kids out of our sights? When did we become so protective?

If I tell Jack to go outside and play in the back yard (something we rarely did before installing The Fence) he invariably sulks and says that he'd be bored and couldn't we come outside and play with him? Even indoors, if he isn't watching TV, he wants us to play with him.

Today, Ann sent me a link to an article in the Boston Globe which talks to all of this directly. "Sheltered Lives: When did kids stop playing outdoors?" by Jenna Russell talks about the research by Roger Hart, a brit who went and spoke to children back in the day and again today. He is producing a movie about this and I eagerly await its release.

I wish there was a way to give Jack much more freedom yet retain our sense of his safety. Maybe the answer is to let go and allow the greater (possibly perceived?) risk. But then again, knowing what we know about the world around us, I don't think we could do that. I don't really know the answers but this is something I want to raise with our neighbors with kids. Maybe we can come up with something together that benefits all of our children.

Tags: Childhood, playtime

I never do resolutions. I have always found them trite. I tend to resolve to do things when I need to do so and don't need an arbitrary date to get things moving. For example, I began losing weight and lost over 40 pounds from July to December. I'll continue to do so moving forward until I reach my target weight. But, after doing and completing NaNoWriMo and after reading an posting by NaNoWriMo creator, Chris Baty, about a Big, Fun, Scary challenge for the new year, I feel the need to set some goals for myself.

First, are the obvious ones such as continuing to lose weight, eat healthy, and walk every day (or perform some level of exercise). Add to these that I want to read more than I have been the last few years. When I used to commute to work, I had plenty of time to read and did so. Now, I work from home and fill the time with other activities.

The next level up, more at the project level than the daily activity level, has to do with investing and financial management. I'm not posting details as I do not have any yet. I have an idea what I want to do and how to get there and I'll leave it at that.

Finally, at the "Big, Scary, Fun" level is that I want to take up art again and finally learn to draw and do watercolors. This comes and goes over the years but I was inspired by the Hopper exhibit we just saw at the National Gallery in DC and want to make this happen.

So, there they are. I'll post progress reports as I move forward and you are welcome to badger me if I fail to do so. The best way to meet goals is to have someone looking over your shoulder, I find.

Happy New Year!

Tags: resolutions