Games that children play

The other day there was an interesting post on Facebook that gave pictorial presentation of games that children used to play even in the 60s and 70s – girls played games like the hula hoop, hop scotch, rope skipping, while the boys played seven tiles, yoyo, marbles, and top etcetera.
Each of these games helped to tone up the muscles of the child’s body and keep it fit. During lunch break the kids used to be kept busy making teams on their own and playing. The games were instrumental in imparting knowledge to the kids – knowledge on leadership, control and managing. These came to them naturally. They acquired the knowledge through practical experiences.

Moreover, these games made them mentally tough and they learnt that every game has a winner and a loser – they learnt to accept defeat with a smiling face or be subject to ridicule from their own. Obviously, education did not end with bookish knowledge but also included other aspects of life that taught the child how to live and interact in a community.
However, over a period of time, the thinking and outlook of not only the children but their parents and guardians have also gone through a major transformation. The exact time when this change began to happen is difficult to pinpoint but, it all started with the gradual breakup of the joint family system and crystallization of the nuclear families or families with one or two child norms.
Another contributory factor was the son of the family migrating to greener pastures away from home or the daughter getting married and going away to a distant place. And, coupled to these was the hidden desire of the parents to see the fulfillment of their unfulfilled desires through their children.
In the bargain, the children have lost their childhood. They are straddled with tons of books, they have to mug off page after page so that they can score high marks in examinations. Last week it was announced that cutoff mark for admission to DU was 100%!!
Obviously, children of today have no time to appreciate the beauty of the birds and flowers, no time to interact with Nature. Outing to them means spending the weekend in some restaurant gorging on pizzas and pastas.
And, whatever leisure time they have, they spend in front of the TV watching cartoons. Or – play video games on the mobile. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)
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Ripe mangoes and mango cakes or amsatta