Kids these days just not imaginative enough

Some of my most vivid memories of vacations with my family are of the car rides there. When my… Some of my most vivid memories of vacations with my family are of the car rides there. When my dad sported his cheesy baseball cap that read, “We’ll get there when we get there,” my sister and I knew that we were expected to entertain ourselves and keep the whines of “are we there yet?” to a minimum.

At that age, an eight-hour car ride seemed like a lifetime; we were forced to come up with ways to pass the time. We played cards, drew pictures, played car games and even built forts in the backseats with beach towels when we were feeling extra creative.

These experiences helped us develop the ability to keep our minds busy when there was a lack of other stimuli. We strengthened our imaginations so that boredom wouldn’t get the best of us.

I’m thankful for those experiences, which is why I’m saddened by the way parents today are keeping their kids busy. Instead of making up songs or creating games to pass the time, kids are watching portable DVD players. Instead of drawing pictures or reading on long car rides, they’re playing their PSPs.

No matter how long I perceived the drive to be, or how many times I thought I would die of boredom, I’ll never forget the unique and goofy ways my sister and I kept ourselves entertained.

I worry that if kids don’t use their imaginations – instead relying on their technologically advanced toys – their imaginations will be stunted or lost altogether. And imaginations, especially for children, are precious.

While I feel sad that many kids will miss out on using their imaginations during situations like endlessly long car trips, it especially angers me when I see kids indulging in their aforementioned toys when they could be actually interacting with others.

The main forum where I’ve seen this going on is at restaurants. As a former hostess, I saw kids watching their portable DVD players during the meal on multiple occasions.

One of the most important reasons families go out to meals is to talk – to bond. This can’t happen if kids are allowed to engage in something else for the whole time. Even beyond that, there is a time and place for everything, and the dinner table is no place to be watching movies.

When I was young, I always hated how my parents strictly enforced the “no television during dinner” rule. But now I’m very grateful they did. Not only did some of our best discussions occur at the dinner table, it was also one of the only times when we could all interact with our attention undivided, free from phone calls or the distractions of the television.

Yet another situation in which I’ve frequently witnessed kids hiding behind their toys is during family functions or get-togethers their parents take them to. Every kid has been dragged by her mom and dad to horribly boring parties at one time or another. Whenever that happened to me, having no other option, I would make awkward conversation with adults and play with the other kids.

Although I’ll be the first to admit that playing with the other kids was often another form of torture in and of itself, those were still important experiences to have because they taught me that, in life, I’m going to have to go to many places I don’t want to, with people I may not like or know, and that in those situations I have no legitimate excuse to hide. Sometimes you just have to suck it up, put a smile on your face and interact.

It’s shocking to see that some parents allow their children to avoid social situations and essentially zone out from interaction. Not only is it rude, it can also be dangerous in that it may hinder the development of their social skills.

After all, the only way children will learn to effectively communicate and interact is to actually interact with real people, not just a screen.

Children should have the full opportunity to play, pretend and imagine, and parents should make sure that their children develop social skills so they can at least make it through dinner without watching television.

Hopefully these kids are fueling their imaginations in other ways, because the loss of an imagination is a terrible waste. Not to mention that when they’re sitting in a high school or college classroom, unable to pop in a DVD, they’re going to need every bit of imagination they can get.

Anjali Nair dreamed up this whole column while in the car. E-mail her at amn17@pitt.edu with something imaginative.