What can Britain do to “bring back childhood”?

Hard to navigate isn’t it? A lot of things now are about being child-friendly or child-centred spaces but that’s relatively new when we are bringing kids up to be adults. Kids were expected to learn to behave in adult spaces rather than just go to places with kids and mums. A lot of this is a society that likes kids less rather than just keeping them safe. Not wanting them to annoy other people by their existence. But a small example is that when we watched baby shows it was followed by kids shows, teen shows and then whatever our parents wanted to watch. Whereas now kids have their own channels and their own tablet and a lot of parents would prefer them to only watch stuff made for their age group rather than supervise them watching other stuff or sitting and watching the same stuff together. There’s a lot of great kid centred places to play and explore but kids used to go on their parents back to the fields whilst they worked. I’m not saying they should now. Kids also got shoved up chimneys or taken to hunt or work rather than being in education. I’m certainly not wanting to take things backwards. But I don’t think it’s normal for children to lead such different lives to adults surrounded by stuff that largely isn’t real. Is it better for kids to be in a gastro pub catered to families to have dinner than running around a bowling alley and falling asleep in a smoky pub where the adults are all half drunk? Probably, but the latter feels more like being in a community space where I was learning something about the world and off making friends with other pub kids, and my parents were enjoying themselves rather than anxious about my behaviour. A lot of kiddie activity means less family activity that everybody enjoys together. And where you say with risk I think that’s all about balance. I think it’s good to think about when they’re small though. I noticed with a lot of the boomer and gen x parents they worked hard to make sure their kids have it easier and a good life and education then seem to just get really mad and resentful at their kids about it, calling them soft, entitled, annoyed that they might know some things that they don’t from the education, even though a lot of the endurance that older generations have has left a very deep mark in emotional immaturity and taking out their trauma on others, as opposed to younger generations who often don’t seem able to push through emotional and personal difficulties. It’s difficult to have emotionally healthy and secure kids whilst making sure they have the tools to navigate difficult scenarios. I suppose it means when they’re old enough making sure you send them out into the world to explore and make mistakes. To go on that trip or camp out or sleepover or whatever. Make sure they know that regardless of how you discipline your kids and if you stand up for them against other adults that there will be consequences they have to face if they act like idiots. Let them attempt and fail to fix their problems before stepping in. Quite a lot of young people live at home now compared to before. It’s nice that they can. One of my colleagues is 18. Struggling with the job market. But certainly won’t put up with the thing I put up with from employers at his age. It’s a good thing in a lot of ways, but there isn’t collective action or strong unions, so I’ve had to point out that a lot of places main reason for hiring kids over people with experience is to exploit their enthusiasm and naivety. But even kids who are saving money aren’t necessarily paying full rent or eager to move out so there’s no motivation. As for girlfriends he said “I don’t think I’m emotionally mature enough for a relationship”. And whilst I’m glad teens are maybe avoiding traumatising each other as much as we were, you have to experience shit and mess up in order to learn. You don’t get good at relationships by not dipping your toes in the water. The fear of failure in “sensible” kids is way too high. A lot of the “damaged” kids might be on drugs and struggle to hold down relationships or having kids early, but at the same time lots of them been running their own house since 15, and earning proper money and have very good, if over-active survival skills. The “good kids” don’t know what to do after education ends. They’re waiting for the teacher or parent to tell them what to do.