Going To Speak My Mind...... And Stuff......

Wow! Lombozo is going to speak his mind. What a surprise........

I read to my son every night from his favorite books. Right now it is a series called 'Little Critter'. He loves them! I also do story time, which can be about anything at all. He names a subject, and we make up a story together. It used to be monster stories. Now it is about a fictional character patterned after our dog. Always funny, he laughs uncontrollably a huge belly laugh to the point that he toots while I tell the story, and he needs to catch his breath.

I just started, with his help, a childrens book. I'm not bad in Illustrator, and illustrate the book while coming up with the storyline as well. (I'm also 3/4 done with a novel as well which is not children related.) His book makes him laugh, and we continue to do a page or two a day - you know illustrations, and story line - under his DIRECT SUPERVISION of course.

Now here is my point. While my son does indeed play video games occassionaly, and does watch TV/Movies, how can it get better than nuturing his imagination?

I have some friends who think that TV/Video Games are Baby Sitters. WTF? Are you kidding me? When I look into his eyes and watch the imagination wheels spinning at a mile a second I am thrilled! I absolutely love it!

Here's where my controversial side comes into this post.

Being a child today is so very different than when I was a kid. We used our imaginations ALL the time! Heck, it's pretty close to all we had. Give us a refrigerator box, and we would have days worth of adventures in it. Pirate ships, airplanes, tanks, forts.....etc....... until it rained out, and the box was ruined. It was awesome.
My son had a friend over this past Sunday, and i said, let's play hide and seek!
My son screamed 'Yeah!!!'
The other little boy (who is 6) said - "What's hide and seek?"
Are you kidding me?
Then I offered to tell a story, or read a book. My son was into it, yet again I heard. "No I'd rather play a video game." from his friend.

Parenting is a PRIVILEDGE. It is not a RIGHT. To take what I liken a newborns mind to 'An Empty Chalice' you can fill it with whatever you decide and turn said child into a believer of whatever you decide to teach.

I can't even imagine what it might be like to text a friend at 7 years old. We had tin cans with waxed string between them for a communication system. Walkie Talkies while running through the neighboring yards was supreme!

Finding some wood, we would build a fort, and would spend countless hours playing in it.

Call me old fashioned. Heck, call me whatever you want, but I want my son to know what fun it is to use his imagination. To play outside, and come in all covered in mud, and grass stains. I am so sick and tired of hearing other parents chastise a child because their new sneakers have a mud stain on them. Isn't that what being a kid is all about?

I grew up, shall we say, not wealthy. Hell we were pretty poor. My clothes were not new, but they were clean. I might not have liked what was for supper, but I had one in front of me every night. My Dad was rarely around as he was on Duty most of the time, but my Mom read to me every day. My father was a voracious reader. He encouraged me to read every time I saw him. He insisted that I play outside and use my imagination. He encouraged it.

In math class, I had a #2 pencil and a piece of paper. No Calculators. I not only had to do it long hand, I had to show my work.

I feel sorry for the youth of today. If the power ever goes out, the majority of our youth will be completely lost.

Want to find a nice example of a place to use the word shame? Here it is. It's a shame.

Originally posted by lombozo
I feel sorry for the youth of today. If the power ever goes out, the majority of our youth will be completely lost.

Hi l, I grew up in Greece in the 70s and the only TV show I ever watched was "Combat" once a week just to get ideas for games to play with my friends and our soldiers.

My wife and I have no children but I dare say that having the power going out here or there on purpose isn't a bad idea.

I was living in Manhattan a few years back when we had the massive blackout and for that first night the transformation in the city and its people was almost magical. The West Village instantly went back in time and we were transported to a time where communal interaction was the norm. Everybody went out on the streets, shared stories jokes and food, and became themselves once more.

I actually didn't want the power to come back.

You hit the nail on the head buddy (as usual)

You used a line in there that I make frequent use of as well when you said that being a parent is a privilege.

I couldn't imagine just sitting my daughter down in front of the TV or something because I had other things to do.

The countless hours I spend each week having my make-up done and dressing up like a princess (yes there are pictures) for tea parties and picnics are the best times of my life.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

You're a good man and a good father lombozo, and nobody can ever take that away from you.

I'm proud to call you a friend.

Such a true tale you tell.

We had a major power outage in our part of the country before Christmas and I think I had a harder time with it than my kids.

And the box story is so true, quite a few years ago, my kids are older than your son, I bought one of my daughters a Fisher Price playhouse for the back yard. It sat unattended as my daughters and their older cousins used the box it came in to make a better play house. have it on video.

Thanks for the reminder.