Where The Wild Things Were
So today I was watching my kids walking out of school, which in itself is super cute. There is nothing like watching your 6-year-old and 4-year-old walking to the car, in school uniform (though WHY must the Master 6’s shirts be business style white shirts? Distaster’s waiting to happen that have seen is purchase EIGHT this year so far at $60 each… Yeah holy shitballs right?) and bags that are 2/3 their size dragging behind them. As a Mummy moment, it’s all kinds of cute.
Though we know this blog isn’t about fucking cute. What I also noticed blew my brain. Not too much can do that, I generally fundamentally think the majority of the population is all kinds of stupid. Not you dear reader, because you read this blog and stupid people don’t read this blog. Well unless it’s about them, then they fucking read it obsessively. I’m still living it up in my hater mansion in your head btw. Living it up… Sitting on the deck in the nice spring weather drinking a good glass of Pinot. Cheers!
At my kid’s school you can tell the kids grade level by shirt colour, up to starched business shirt for 6 year olds. I challenge any 6 year old boy to keep a shirt like that in pristine condition, as the school requires. Gotta love private schools. Non pristine shirt gets you an email from them politley requesting you get a new shirt. My inbox would be polluted by these if I wan’t in the business of shirt buying frequently, because my son is 6 and of course his shirt gets dirty so go fuck you and your uniform code are not appropriate. Even when worded delicately. I found this out the interesting way. But I digress this isn’t about the state of my kids shirts or the uniform guidelines (though seriously they are out of control they even have a specific range of lengths boys hair can be, not too short and back of hair can’t be touching collar of shirt). They actually take this shit real seriously.
I’m rarely surprised…. You all know this.
But this surprised me, today after school I saw a kid in a shirt (indicating he was a 5-6 year old) sitting outside in the middle of the oval after school (unsupervised may I add) talking on a mobile phone. Luckily I’m not in the market for another 5-year-old boy. A girl since I have only 1 and 3 boys? Hmm maybe, though my diva is a handful as is. Again I digress…
That’s right, a kid at the age of 6 max sitting in school property, totally unsupervised, talking on his mobile phone. What the living fuck?! On several different levels.
What 6-year-old has his own mobile phone? Prepaid or not? Yes it was a real phone, an iPhone 7 at that and it was his and he was chatting away on it. You could argue Mum might be running late and she was talking to him. But if Mum runs late, the kids go to the after school care which is to make sure kids are safe, watched and generally because it’s the schools fucking responsibility to keep them safe when you have placed them in their care. This means they are not sitting unsupervised on the oval. Damn even the car park is supervised, he’d had been safer there! Digressed again. This kid had a PHONE, an expensive phone and is just chatting away to God knows who for the good 20 minutes I was keeping an eye on him. I REALLY should have gone up to him to check on him and taken him to a more appropriate place for a 6-year-old. Hindsight. Next time I will.
When did it become common place to give small children their own phone? Hell it’s even in the school rules that senior students (year 7 so 12 and up) must have their phones turned off DURING CLASS. So I can draw from this it’s ok for a 12-year-old to have a phone at school as long as they are only using it before, after and in their lunch breaks. Again, what the living fuck? Why does a kid who’s 12 NEED a phone for anyways. Yes you could argue its a safety thing if they are walking home, taking a bus or to call parent that they need to be picked up after an after school activity. But as a kid my parents KNEW what times activities finished and were there to pick me up at the designated time. I never walked or caught a bus to school so I can’t comment on that. Though with private schools bus drop off is from door to door, so that eliminates that. But since the wording of the school rules doesn’t say kids can only have phone in them for this purpose, I assume any kid can have a phone. Has the world gone mad?
I got my first phone when I got my license, at 17. I was independent and if I ran into trouble or the car broke down or something I could contact someone. This makes perfect sense. Actually a child driving without a phone would be irresponsible. As long as it’s wired into the car and hands free. We don’t need new drivers breaking the law talking holding the phone or texting when driving. Let’s face it a 17-year-old has minimal driving skills compared to an experienced adult, or a responsible adult I should say because supposedly experienced and responsible adults still break those two laws plus also drive drunk and high.
Don’t even start me on the total selfishness of drunk and high driving. You get a license here at 17 and can legally drink at 18. We all know, well science does, that the pre frontal cortex for risk assessment doesn’t fully develop into adult logic until 25. This is why basically teenagers and early 20 year olds do a lot of dumb shit. They don’t have the mental faculties to do a full risk assessment and comprehend all the risks and outcomes involved. Yes, we’ve all been there, I admit it freely. But I’m also very type A and for the greatest portion of my life been an over thinker and risk taking was always more calculated than my counterparts. Likely why I don’t have a criminal record or managed to hurt/kill myself or someone else. Though I have saved a few lives….. That’s a whole other life and not for this blog! That said I’ve done dumb shit….
But as far as drink driving or drugged driving goes I have HUGE issues. Wrap yourself around a pole and die because you made a bad decision, not a good thing but it’s never that simple is it? They generally always take someone else out with them. Whether it’s hurt or kill and driving with these idiots on the road, with my four kids in the car and I see all fucking kinds of red. If a drunk/drugged driver ever smashed into my car and even a single hair was harmed on anyone’s head in my car, that other person better be prepared to deal with me. Put it this way if the accident didn’t hurt them badly I would. If my child lost their life, I sure as shit would be in jail for murder. No joke. I could be near dead myself but I would still manage to fucking kill the bastard! Several times over if possible. But again I digress, seems to be the theme today.
We live in such a technology filled world, our kids come out of the womb with iPads, or close enough. There are numerous studies showing the disadvantages of introducing technology too young, yet they are still used in school because they are like kiddie crack. Kids ARE learning off them no doubt, but areas like social communication, attention span lengths for non technology related activities and even health (your kids playing with an iPad rather than running at the park, getting dirty and being physical and building immunity) issues. Yet we are all guilty of letting our kids use these things though I personally DO try to limit non learning activities, I’m that Mum. My kids will thank me for it one day.
So I sit here and ponder the line between technology advancing us as the human race and ruining us. I’m starting to think it’s a precarious line that needs close examination. Sure technology to enhance our lives is fine, when we need it to actually live our lives? Problem. I was lost without internet for 2 days when I recently went to a wedding where there was minimal reception. I had no idea what to do with myself. The saddest part was I ended up reading books on my iPad (or MrBmB as I gave up the iPad a long time ago) or watching movies on my laptop. All technology based…. I didn’t interact with a single person other than Mr BMB and my kids on the phone, I didn’t go outside and I sure as hell didn’t do something spontaneous or adventurous. I might be oldish, but I’m not dead and none of this other stuff occurred to me. I was too busy whining about the lack of internet, how many emails I was missing and how I couldnt shop online (yes I hate people and I hate shopping in centres with them) but I never used to have a choice.
So I wonder if this is what it’s like now, what hope do our children and their children have? We have SO many children being diagnosed with speech/language and communication disorders. Is it because we are more vigilant now or because we simply just don’t really communicate the same way anymore?
I’ll leave you with this interesting tidbit, for most children one of their first 10-20 words is iPad or phone. What the living fuck? That’s at 1 to 1.5 years of age, maybe younger if you have a talker. That clearly points out something is very wrong! The word park? In the top 50 to 100 and linguistically speaking park is a more easily formed word by sound acquisition than phone or iPad. The “p” sound is early developing “ph”, later and 2 syllable iPad, even later. So it’s all about exposure. Sobering thoughts really!
