Mirror Magazine

When we look back on our childhood, we can fondly recall those carefree days of playing in the mud, climbing trees, ‘hide and seek’, ‘Doctor, Doctor’ (complete with the whole first aid kit and prescription book), making your parents ‘savour’ the delectable delights you’ve cooked up on your imaginary stove… sigh… “Those really were the days…” Call me old fashioned, but where have those days gone? Where’s all that imagination, that sense of mischief and innocence? Is it too late for those born into the ‘High-Tech Age’ to re-live the wonders of the era before? Surely it cannot be so… or is it?

In today’s fast-paced world, where the quicker, easier, technologically more advanced approach reigns supreme, it would seem almost impossible to find a kid growing up in an environment with even the slightest semblance to your own. But, never fear, there is yet a flicker of hope – the kids who are unable to access the numerous ‘wonders’ of the modern age! These fortunate souls have the freedom to let their imaginations run wild and truly enjoy the ‘little things in life!’

Fundamentally, children are (for the most part) the same. Every child, irrespective of his/her circumstances, yearns to set the ‘kid’ inside of them free! It’s the means by which they tend to do so that differs.

As for me, kids will always be kids, but seeing so many of them missing out on some of the best years of their lives is very sad. It almost makes me want to take them by the shoulders, give them a good shake and say “don’t be in such a hurry to grow up, you’ll have more than your share of adulthood. Enjoy every moment of being a child, because it’ll pass you by before you know it, and only then will you regret what you missed out on!”

Children today, are too engrossed in the latest version of Play Station or X-Box or staring at the ‘idiot box’ all day, to bother taking part in the simple joys of childhood that have long been considered way too ‘old fashioned’ for the child of the ‘new age’. Kids nowadays would much rather spend hours on end playing games, where two fighters (or mutants even) will fight to the death, than dress up as knights armed with wooden swords and romp in the garden with the kid next door or their best buddy!

I’m still to fathom out the reasoning behind this rapidly rising phenomenon. Are kids today not imaginative enough, or is it that they’re ‘too cool for their own good’ or is it that they’re just plain lazy??? There must be some better explanation I’m sure, it’s just that I find it very difficult to see or understand it.

My mind just can’t seem to comprehend how kids can spend the most part of their day within the confines of their home or even a video arcade for that matter, day in, day out, glued to the computer or TV screen. It doesn’t digest easily at all. It’s not just their modes of entertainment either, it’s the content of their conversations, their dress code, their regular behaviour patterns, their everyday practices… their very lifestyles in fact, that simply fails to spell out the word C-H-I-L-D anymore.

The scariest thing for me though, is if these kids wake up one morning in their teens, look back on their childhood, and wonder where it went. That is the one regret you will never get another chance to remedy. It’s that one moment in time that’s just too good not to seize!