Do children play differently then we used to?

Question

I was just at someone's house and my son (3) just start wrestling with the boy there (4) and he's being pretty gentle and smiling at the same time, you know, no bad intentions. And everyone's like "no, no, no wrestling, be gentle, get off of him." I mean I remember we would be killin' each other in the other room and our Moms would just check in on us every now and then. We didn't have adults on our backs the whole time dictating our every move. Sometimes a kid would get hurt, crying the mom would give him a kiss and say stop crying and go back and play. Now it seems at this rate we are going to raise a bunch of sissies! What do you think? How do you remember it being during your childhood. Is rolling around with other children for fun wrong now a days!?

For those of you that say that playing tag and wrestling around gets out of hand, that's what adult supervision is for- to stop it when it goes too far. Plus, things happen, kids get hurt, are we trying to raise children that never get a scratch, a bruise, a sprained foot! We can't protect our children that much!

Answer 1

haha, I TOTALLY AGREE! I was watching my nephew (who's tall for 6) wrestling with another kid who was the same size, but the mom nearly had a heart attack. They weren't fighting, just wrestling. But I was cracking up watching them laugh and body slam each other. When she saw me smile, she gave me a rotten look. Like WHATEVER!!!

You're right though! People are "pussifying" their kids terribly now. I'm not worried; my kids WILL get hurt, wrestle, have fun and be a kid. ;)

Answer 2

I've never seen any difference in the kids I know of today than when I was young or when my daughter was young. They still wrestle. They still "roll around" The older ones pile up pillows and will "body slam" the smaller ones into the pillows, the smaller ones come back laughing begging for more. That's the way it was when my daughter was younger as well and we'd get together for family events. It went on like that when I was a kid. I would say that these people are simply getting uptight over nothing. I see nothing "bullying" about kids playing.

Answer 3

Yes they do. I work at my son's elementary school. They aren't even allowed to play tag anymore cause it has gotten out of hand. Kids don't just tap each other anymore they actually push each other down and shove and slap. His school has a hands off policy because there was so much violence and bullying. I agree with the school.
I don't think they'll turn into sissies. I think if we don't stop some of these kids now they'll end up in prison.
I think as long as the kids are taught right then it's ok to wrestle around on the ground but now days kids get hurt and they really fight back even though you were only playing.........

Answer 4

Almost all the games kids play these days are considered rough and hurtful. I totally agree with you were raising a generation of sissys. My niece once got a time out for throwing a nerf ball at a kid at school. Its a nerf ball how is that gonna hurt ne body.

Answer 5

OH YEAH!!!
parents don't want their kids wrestling, running or playing anything that means physical contact & YET!!!!
They allow them to watch violence on t.v. & play violent video games. That makes sense HUH??
Kids use to have imaginations also. I remember my brother & I playing with the other kids in the neighborhood & we ALWAYS had something to do. If we didn't, we made up something to do. I watch our three boys & their friends & THANKFULLY they are able to keep themselves occupied without the t.v. & without the video games. They are allowed both, but their lives do NOT revolve around these, because their dad & I will NOT let them. Our older two also like to read & they are learning to play chess. All three LOVE to go out on the boat fishing with their dad & he is teaching all three to play golf as well & each one has their own dog & their own horse, so if all else fails they have that....
Then again up here physical activity & finding things to do are maybe a little easier, maybe not.....

Answer 6

For the most part, yes. The younger they are the better. They are what God wants all of us to be. They don't have to worry about between the lines.

Don't worry about sissies. Nature takes care of that. We just need to be sure that our children know the difference between a bad friendship that wants to harm to demean others and those who just want to have fun. Children live a simple life and we live or at least tend to live more complicated or convoluted ones. And this is just life.

Answer 7

my brothers would kick my ****! (one older and one younger and i'm the sister in the middle).
i loved it because it made me a tough and confident, yet still lady-like, woman.
i agree that moms these days are raising softies. that doesn't mean that i think boys or girls for that matter should go around a beat each other up, but i DO think that a little horse-play never hurt anybody.
word.

Answer 8

Nothing wrong with rough and tumble playing. Just watch that it doesn't get out of hand.

Seems like I mostly remember playing in dirt when I was young. Most of our games were played outside and I remember always getting dirty back then. I'm 50. No video games back then.

Answer 9

Last night, we had my niece and nephews over (ages 13, 10, and 4). They seriously beat the living daylights out of each other, but they have fun. Even my niece (the 4 yr. old) was in on the action. Jumping on her big brothers, sitting on their heads, and kicking the oldest in his butt. At one point, her brothers even had her by the feet and were dragging her around on the floor. They never meant anything mean by it, they were having fun. If they were doing it to intentionally hurt one another, I would have stepped in and said something. But they weren't. They were beating the hell out of each other, but none of them were doing it to purposely hurt the others.

I don't see anything wrong with kids wrestling with each other. Geeze even animals wrestle and play with their siblings and you don't see the mother of the puppies or lions saying "Quit that!" or "Be Gentle!" They're just having fun.

Answer 10

Seems to be the no contact rule now a days. They don't even want to play things like dodgeball since it will hurt someone.