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Dad goes viral sharing how 90s parents handled entertaining kids in a totally different way
Yes, yes, we know that parenting looks a lot different than when we were kids. And yet, there’s always a new revelation that modern parents seem to discover once it’s them doing the child rearing. In a clip posted to his TikTok, comedian (and dad) Jack Skipper shared how very different parenting today looks when it comes to keeping kids entertained. "Nowadays you gotta do what your kids wanna do. You gotta keep them entertained,” Skipper noted. “But when I was growing up, you just did what your parents wanted to do. You just had to sort of follow them around... and make your own entertainment.”He then compared a typical modern day task of “going to an adventure playground” or a scavenger hunt on the weekend to his childhood, which basically consisted of him following his mom around while she shopped. @mrjackskipper Am I right? #relatable #parenting #90s ♬ original sound - Jack Skipper “Trying to help mom find a size 14 dress…that was the closest I came to scavenger hunt, “ Skipper quipped.Another example he used was going with his mom to get her hair done. Hopefully the hairdresser would have kids (it was the 90s, folks got their hair done in houses) so that he could find some toys to play with. Otherwise, he’d just have to deal with being bored. Clearly, Skipper wasn’t the only millennial to have a childhood that looked like this. And as one commenter noted, perhaps things don’t look that way anymore in part because “people are just trying to give their kids the childhood they wish they’d had,” which is pretty much the entire reason behind gentle parenting in the first place, right? “People are just trying to give their kids the childhood they wish they’d had.”Photo credit: CanvaHowever, while the intention to provide a nurturing, stimulating environment for our kiddos is certainly a good thing, there might have been something lost along the way. Good old fashioned, unstructured boredom isn’t fun, but it does help kids develop important skills like tolerating discomfort, problem solving, developing imagination, and critical thinking. According to many parents and educators, nearly all of these qualities have dwindled in younger generations, who can easily rid themselves of uncomfortable boredom at the swipe of an iPad. Plus, not succumbing to providing entertainment for kids every minute of every day gives parents a much needed sense of autonomy as well. This is something folks in other cultures haven’t forgotten. Spain, for instance, is well known for having parents simply bring their kids in strollers to whatever group they’re attending and letting them fall asleep there, rather than packing up everything to get their kids in bed by seven p.m. Still, there are plenty who would argue that even with its potential flaws, the new strategy far exceeds the old one. One person even recalled, “I got dragged around and learned that I was not important at all. I felt like a ghost for most of my childhood. There's a reason we’re all struggling with self love.” “I got dragged around and learned that I was not important at all."Photo credit: CanvaOkay, so maybe parents shouldn’t revert back to dragging our kids around to places where they might be miserable, but they don’t need to force themselves to constantly provide engaging activities. In fact, a little boredom might do kids some good.
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