Not exactly a debate. What made your childhood different than your childs?

Caitlin - posted on 04/16/2012

Being able to eat anything - stupid damn food allergies are so common it drives me crazy! Neither of my daughters will be able to randomly share food with friends and go to parties without epi pens and scrutinizing every food label of something they eat ( or having ME do it for them if they are young). I had great memories of just popping into a doughnut shop with my dad when I was a kid and enjoying a sugar frosted tasty thing, but those places are dedath traps!



No church for my kids! My kids are too individualist like I was, my mom was always getting qquestioned about why I coloured my sheep purple in sunday school and stupid things like that, I REALLY dont know why she insisted on dragging me until I was 16 and got a weekend job.



Work - I hope to have saved enough money to support my kids through school for the most part with the help of RESPs, because I don't really want them doing what my husband and I had to do for post secondary education (Work full time while going to school full time and taking out loans just to scrape by). I'd like them to get jobs and learn about money and reponsibility, but I also want them to be able to spend that money on non school things for the most part (we'll see how much we actually get saved up by them time all 3 are graduated hgih school)..

Aleks - posted on 04/12/2012

Same as yours Katherine, playing freely until dark WITH FRIENDS FROM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD (I am finding that one has to be friendly and friends with the mother/parents to set up playdates these days.... eyeroll)



Also technology - mobile phones, computers, touch screens etc



They also grow up without snow ( I lived in the northern hemisphere for most of my childhood) - my boy lamented today that he wished it snowed in Australia because he really would like to make a snowman :-(



Extended family... oh the relationships I had with my grandparents and their siblings and their siblings' children, etc etc... (that is all gone now, so sad), my cousins



Probably never knowing the thrill of receiving that long awaited letter (sail mail.. he he he) in the post box ....



Also they will never know (well I hope ) what it feels like to be out of things, and essential things and not be able to go to a shop and replace them ( I grew up in a communist country which frequently had shortages of many many things).

They will never know what it feels like to receive only 1-3 presents under the christmas tree and only 1-3 presents IN ALL for ones birthday. And how one treasured those special toys one DID get.... ahhhhhh...... I wish they did know this.....

Sherri - posted on 04/11/2012

Same as you Katherine in your original post.

Katherine - posted on 04/11/2012

Elfrieda: I made sure my kids won't have to worry about money also. It's such a struggle these days!

Elfrieda - posted on 04/11/2012

My son won't have to work from age 6 to help support the family like my husband did, and he won't have to worry about money all the time like we both did.



I hope to still give him a good work ethic and appreciation of earning something, and the sense of being important to the survival of the family, but without the bad parts.

Celeste - posted on 04/11/2012

Let's see..



Playing outside:, I let my 9 year old daughter play outside, pretty much til dark. Of course, I check on her. When I was kid, I was NOT allowed in the front yard. Heaven forbid I walk around the block with my friend (I was in HS mind you)



I'm much more "here". My mom did the best she could being a single mom and being an ER nurse. When she was off, she'd spend her days sleeping. Dinners were "fend for yourselves".



Technology: I didn't have cell phones. I did have a Nintendo and thought that was the state of the art LOL



Like Rebecca, Grandparents. My grandparents were a HUGE part of my life. They helped raise me and lived about 5 min from us. My kids grandparents, not so much. I love my mom but she's so self absorbed and rather would spend time with her boyfriend than her grandkids. Their other grandparents live farther away.

Alahnna - posted on 04/10/2012

Well, I grew up in a home with both my parents,mine are growing up in a single mother household. They are having to grow up faster because todays' society is so in your face with divorce, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc. I also run a daycare from my home, so they have other children here when they get home until suppertime, my mother stayed home until I was in about 3-4th grade, then she went out and worked.

Lady Heather - posted on 04/10/2012

Definitely the technology. My older daughter is confused when I use the regular phone because she can't see who we are talking to. Haha. The thing I love about that is we are so much more connected to distant family than I was as a kid. Granny doesn't live here, but Freja can Skype with her everyday.



Other than that it is pretty similar. I am thinking about making a big change though and downsizing to a very small house and lots of property. That would definitely be different. My parents were not self-sufficient minimalists.

Rebecca - posted on 04/10/2012

My kids are only 4, but they do play outside until dark almost every day. I probably watch them a little more than my mom did, but that is primarily a function of age and the lack of a fenced yard.



Big difference? Mosquitos. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I don't ever remember having to apply bug spray to play outside until the street lights came on as a kid. Bug spray was something that was applied when you were up north. Now, I have to put something on my kids every day or they get eaten alive.



We were very close to parks and pools when I grew up -- now we are in a new sub where you have to drive to everything. It sucks.



Grandparents. My kids don't really have any (at least none that are accessible). My Grandparents lived a few blocks away from us and my Grandpa would randomly visit at various times throughout the week. He was a near constant presence in our home. It breaks my heart that my kids won't have the benefit of having that type of relationship with either my or my husband's parents. I also am sad that I, as the adult in the situation now, don't have the support of having my mom around.



Technology is much more present but that's up to the parents to control their exposure to it. My kids have no idea how to use an iPad, iPod, or Leappad. They don't even know how to turn up the volume on the TV because we watch it so rarely. I consider that a good thing.

Vicki - posted on 04/10/2012

Technology would be the main thing. I have returned to the same area I grew up and it's not anymore dangerous so that hasn't changed. Touchscreens were a sci-fi idea then but my 2 year old has worked out the damn iPad already.

MeMe - Raises Her Hand (-_-) (Mommy Of A Toddler And Teen) - posted on 04/10/2012

I had abusive parents until the age of 5. Then I had an abusive but very absent mother, that never disciplined, just called me names, yelled and disengaged in getting to know her child.



My children have the exact opposite.



Other than that. I had a shitload of fun as a kid and teen, all by myself. My kids, will not get to have that same fun, unfortunately, since it was not very "positive" fun....if you know what I mean. ;)

Katherine - posted on 04/10/2012

Ahh the technology!

Jodi - posted on 04/10/2012

Computers. Colour TV. More than one TV channel.

Katherine - posted on 04/10/2012

Yeah it's pretty bad when my 6 year old asks , "Mommy, why did that man shoot that lady?"





Heartbreaking.

Tracey - posted on 04/10/2012

Innocence and security. My kids are a lot more aware of sex, danger, world politics, wars, health, illness, death, divorce, child abuse, money, lack of money, etc and that makes them more insecure than I was as a child. I was brought up thinking you went to school, got a job, got married, had kids & lived happily ever after. My kids worry about a lot of issues that I was never aware of.

Isobel - posted on 04/09/2012

I was poor and raised by a single mother that worked 10 hours a day, my kids are not and they have two parents who are very close to being SAHPs...I totally wonder how they are going to turn out because we have NOTHING in common.

Stifler's - posted on 04/09/2012

that too i refuse to live out of town and never be alllowed to do stuff with friends

Jaime - posted on 04/09/2012

i lived in the woods. my children are going to live either in town or a lot closer to town so that they can have friends and be in school events and do things with their childhood that they want to do instead of be stuck out in the middle of nowhere and never go anywhere except church, school, and walmart.

Stifler's - posted on 04/09/2012

My kids don't have to go to church instead of staying home to watch rage.