I'll send you a great email about being over 30 later when I get home, but for now let me say:

I agree with you. Kids are way to structured. They have no real free time, like we had. For many, the house is empty until evening, so the child is either forced to stay in the house (for safety) or must stay elsewhere. Mom and dad aren't home until dinner time, so they need to relax before they can spend any time with the kids. Then it's too late. A structured activity (many, actualy) makes the parents feel they are offering their kids quality time.

I see it in my granddaughter, niece and nephew. It's not that the parents don't love them or anything like that; it's what life is like now.

More than anything, the two person income and the TV babysitter have molded this and previous generations. Kids today are 4 and 5 times removed from what we did in our lives. As a public school jr. high teacher for the past 33 yrs. I've seen drastic changes in parents and students at least 3 or 4 times.

Who was/is better off? Who knows; life is what it is. There are other things that concern me more than liesure activities for our kids, but that's my next book.

Dr. Cass