I Got Posted 5

Yup, I've got an illo in today's National Post. Another fun one to illustrate! To see a larger version, click here.

The article points out how radically different childhood is these days, compared to two or three decades ago, specifically all of the changes in technology, and how that affects young kids on so many different levels. Another big challenge these days are the many new fears a parent faces, due to our sophisticaed technology, as well as so many new pressures in school and social life for young children. Here's a section of the article:

Childhood today differs radically from childhood just two or three decades ago. Play dates, video games, and instant messaging are just two signs that an older form of childhood has given way to something dramatically different.

The most striking transformation has occurred in children's play. There has been a sharp decline in walking, bike riding, and time spent out of-doors. Increasingly, children's leisure activities are technologically mediated and take place inside a home. At the same time, more of kids' activities outside the home are highly structured and supervised, from play dates for the youngest kids to organized sports as they grow older. In the United States, unnstructured play and outdoor activities for children 3 to 11 declined nearly 40% between the early 1980s and late 1990s.

Why has childhood changed? A demographic and economic revolution has fueled the rise of "postmodern" childhood. Today's parents want fewer but "higher quality" kids. In many cities, over 30% of kids are only children. With more mothers working, there are fewer adults in a neighborhood to provide informal supervision. As geographic mobility has increased, parents know fewer neighbors, and feel less comfortable letting their kids play unsupervised outside. Meanwhile, economic growth and higher standards of legal liability mean that the empty lots where past generations played have disappeared.

It is a cliché that the "new" economy of the 21st century places a high value on education. Between 1970 and 2000, the real wages of U.S. high school dropouts decreased by roughly 20% while the real wages of college grads increased about 20%. As a result, much more is at stake in elementary and secondary education than in the past.

These developments have had far-reaching consequences for parenting. Parents worry more than ever about their children's well-being. As marriage bonds have grown more fragile, parents invest more of their time, emotion, energy and resources into their kids. An increasing number of parents view their children as an extension of their self and regard parenting as an art and a science. All parents are Jewish mothers now.

Anxiety is the hallmark of contemporary parenting. Today's parents agonize incessantly about their children's physical health, personality development, psychological well-being, and academic performance. From birth, parenthood is colored by apprehension. Contemporary parents worry about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and physical and sexual abuse, as well as more mundane problems, such as sleep disorders and hyperactivity.

Contributing to parental anxiety are three decades of panics over children's well-being. Since the early 1970s, there has been recurrent alarm over stranger abductions, poisoned Halloween candies, childhood obesity, and pedophiles luring children over the Internet.

I must confess that if I had kids, I would probably be one of those worrying parents. I worry enough as it is about all my nieces and nephews!

Thank goodness we opted for cats!

Comments

[zhoule]

I hear ya on the cats, which is like having a baby in my case. Meow meow meow, at all times of the day. Siamese. Anyhow, another great illo, by the way.

[Scully]

I have miss you so very much! And it's wonderful to see your work in the National. My apologies for not dropping by more the last month but hopefully I'll be doing more so in the future.

As for your post, I'm probably going to worry about my kids until the day I die.

[Dorothy Kew]

You're so right, Trish! Great drawing! By the way, I dropped in to visit with Gerry and family on Wednesday evening, and stayed for dinner. The twins had homework which took up quite a bit of time. As Marg says, "I don't remember having homework in Grade 3". Kids don't have time to have fun any more.

[Isabella]

Good job, Patricia, on depicting what's going on inside my head.

I strongly believe childhood should be free of the pressures the last decades have been imposing. My girl (3yo) is still young enough that we've not succumbed to that brat race, but I'm beginning to worry about all the worrying I'm expected to do, and worry about not showing it, and worry about rising above it...

[eliane]

Don't believe everything you read. I don't ever recognize myself or my kids in these kind of articles, and I illustrate a column on this topic weekly. I am not anxious, and my two teenagers are as sweet as can be.

[bookfraud]

i appreciated the article, and thought the art rocked, though the line "all parents are jewish mothers now" kinda bugged me, maybe because my mother wasn't a worrier extraordinare and that i've seen worriers in chinese, italian, muslim, catholic, etc.

i'm just sensitive following those danish cartoons, you see.

[Cleo]

Great work yet again Patricia! Your art did a good job of capturing a few of the millions of things parents can make themselves crazy worrying about...I have 4 kids: daughters 25, 15, twin sons 14 and a 15 month old grandson-they are all fabulous, loving, smart, fun, well adjusted and actually still like being with me despite the horrors stories about some teenagers. Still, I manage to worry about something every day-not agonize really, but there is always something out there to ponder-and I agree with Scully, it will be that way until I die as well.

[eliane]

My urge to do something about this horrible rep teenagers have is growing by the day. Parents are made frightened by this kind of propaganda. Teenagers are human beings, not monsters.

[patricia]

No one is saying kids are monsters, Eliane. Read the article. It's about parents fearing for the safety of their kids, due to the changing environments within society.