Entertain Me!!
"Ever find yourself tailgating someone because you are caught up in the movie the kids are watching in the back of the vehicle in front of you?"
Friday night I was hanging out online and watching TV when I heard the above said in an advertisement for a comedy program. I don't know the name of the comedian who said it, but the message came through loud and clear.
It started me thinking... (oh no, not again)... about how we are stifling imagination and creativity more and more with each generation.
We now need to have DVD players and video games built into our vehicles to entertain our children. What ever happened to car games? My brother and I used to play "Bug"... spot a Volkswagen Beetle and call out BUG. Keep score on who sees more bugs. Fight over who saw them first, get separated in the back seat and fight over him being on "my side" of the seat.
My kids used to play "I Spy" and Car Bingo. Of course they would fight over that, among other things. Even when we had a minivan, I would give them their own seat all to themselves. They would still find ways to touch each other leading to whines of "she's touching me" and going as far as "she's breathing my air". It might have been arguing, but at least they got creative with it.
When the kids where younger I would bring pencil and paper or coloring books and crayons to a restaurant. Now it is Nintendo DS. Where does imagination and creativity come in??
We have become a society of "Here you go junior, sit in your bouncy chair and watch Baby Einstein videos". You are only six months old but you NEED to be educated. Do we really need a baby Einstein? Perhaps we should just let kids be kids. Their potential developed over time, not forced during infancy. Let their imaginations grow. Sure they need to see art and hear music. But let them go with it. Let them play it out, as my daughter did by setting up all of the Beanie Babies in the form of an orchestra and conducting them to play the music of her mind.
I hear so many children complain, "I'm bored, there is nothing to do". We have 500 channels on cable TV and there is nothing to watch. Get your butt up and go outside. Blow some bubbles. Draw with sidewalk chalk. Play "Man Hunt" and "King of the Hill". Use your over developing mind to have some fun and interact with other children.
When I was a kid, we used to take lawn chairs, blankets and clothespins and build tents with them. Sometimes elaborate towns. No one bought us tents and taught us to follow instructions to put them up. We would go to the stream and use sticks, rocks and leaves to build a dam. We didn't look up how to build one on the internet. Paper towel and toilet paper rolls, wax paper and combs, soda cans and dried beans would be turned into instruments. A friend with baton became the leader of our marching band. We didn't watch "Tommy Lee Goes to College" to learn about how they function.
So I dedicated this weekend to using our minds, imagination and creativity. We played Scrabble, Pictionary and Boggle. We pulled off a few practical jokes. We played guitar, bass, harmonica and even COWBELL to the music on the stereo and the music of our hearts. We sang, played, talked and laughed till we cried.
Even at the ages of 46, 21 and 16, we have turned "Bug" into "Chiquita"... spot the yellow vehicle. (no taxis, buses, construction or commercial vehicles allowed) We busted on each other, making new rules to the game... no dealerships, no side streets, no vehicles parallel parked on Sundays. Always using our creativity to elaborate on the rules.
With the World Wide Web at our fingertips, we don't even need to read a newspaper, let alone make a hat out of one. Times they are a changin'... but is it for the better of the next generations?
Turn off the TV, cell phone, Blackberry, Palm Pilot, laptop, DS, DVD player and whatever else we need to entertain us. Get out there and interact with other people. Have some fun enjoying the young minds of your children and grandchildren. Use your imagination and creativity. It really isn't difficult.
It can be as simple as this... My friend had put one of my daughters troll dolls in the bathroom when he was visiting. It stayed there for weeks. My daughter's boyfriend was joking around, saying he couldn't urinate because the troll was looking at him. So she, and I don't know where she gets this from, added about eight more trolls to the mix. The boyfriend laughed about it but said all eyes were on him. This morning I got up to find them all facing in the opposite direction... yes, I was greeted by tiny little troll asses. I laughed so hard. (Maybe you had to be there.) It really doesn't take much to amuse us. We CAN entertain ourselves. I don't need someone or something to entertain me. I just need a little imagination and creativity.
[: ) -- Have A Nice Day
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Blogs by EmmeS61:
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fenderchick
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May 18 @ 10:33PM
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OMG, I used to have a baton, my dream was to be a majorette, how embarassing but true. I would lead all my friends around the neighborhoon. I think we had a parade at least 4 times a week, sometimes twice on Saturday. 
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luvshorses644
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May 18 @ 10:37PM
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*sigh* I feel the same way about the computers and videos.. I think when we were kids and our children were, there was always a use for imagination and creativity .. seems now it is instant gratification.. shame too, because a mind is a horrible thing to waste.
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Tiramisu4u
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May 18 @ 10:38PM
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OH, I sooo enjoyed this!! 
Yes...we found such simple ways to entertain ourselves.... 
Mine was trying to come up with a plan to permanently make my twin sis disappear from the face of the earth, and not get in trouble for it. 
It was difficult cuz my dad was a cop and could read our minds.... 
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missliss78
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May 18 @ 10:43PM
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Seems no matter how much everything changes, everything stays the same. 
Enjoyed reading you, as always.
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cartay25
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May 19 @ 1:37AM
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I remember my mom helping us invent games with frisbees. All 6 of us kids spent all day long outside making spiders race for us, playing ditch monster and so many other spur of the moment what can we do now games.
I agree, getting out there and doing is so much better than here, play this video.
Great blog 
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lisa46
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May 19 @ 10:52AM
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OMG yes stay out and play till the street lights come on! Everyone on the street corrected ALL children! I am so glad I grew up when I did great blog!
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teddybearagain
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May 19 @ 6:12PM
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Great blog Em,
My family puts the fun in dysfuntional, and we're always coming up with wierd games to play. (especially after the guys had a few beers, lol) Anyway, we take a plastic tablecloth and everyone holds on to it. We put a cotton ball in the middle and everybody "blows" the cottonball around. The person who lets the cottonball fly off the tablecloth is out, and so on, ..kinda like musical chairs.
I know, I know, .. don't say it, .. "we gotta get out more", lol
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PentatonicPunk
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May 19 @ 6:55PM
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I was destined to be a sicko. We used to play darts, but our game was a lil different. Turn off the lights and randomly throw darts around the room...when all the darts were thrown, turn the lights on to see who had darts sticking out of where. I got one in the head once.
Kick the can was fun too, only instead of a can, we'd use my lil sister.
j/k
We'd mostly explore. We'd go into the woods, catch frogs, go fishing, go swimming, take day trips down the railroad tracks and hope a train didn't come while on the tressel bridge. Ride bikes, go sledding, skating, play King of the Hill...I could go on and on.
The thing that's so different though, is that we did these things on our own without adults present. Pretty much unheard of today...at least around here.
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TroutFishing
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May 19 @ 8:43PM
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Only Boring people get bored. ...
The rest of us have IMAGINATION.....
"Imagination is more valuable than knowledge" ... Albert Einstein.
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