Little Girls Playing

Today while I was sewing I had the window open and I could hear the little girls across the street playing. I was so glad to hear them out side and not connected to some kind of electronic device.

They were playing hide and go seek and tag and some jump rope games. The oldest one I think is around 9 to 11 and the littlest one was about 4, the one in the middle I am thinking around 7. They actually reminded me of our family when we were young. I am from a big family, there were 8 of us kids and throw in the neighbor kids and there was always someone to play with.

The oldest was the one in charge, she was the one who said it was time to change games and she was never "it" well unless she wanted to be! The two older ones would hide and the little one was so excited about going to find them you could just tell by her voice, she never complained or got mad or wanted to take the jump rope and go home! She had spunk! The middle one did what ever the older girl wanted to do, but she was old enough to question weather it was a good idea, she always had a question no matter what the game, and foremost in her mind was"Is it fair" I think the littlest one was her sister and the oldest was a neighbor, but not real sure, they moved into a house that has gone through quite a few people just in the 14 months we have lived here, but this is the first time I have actually seen children playing in the yard and no loud music at night. That house has been known to have a few shady characters in it.

I was pretty impressed with the dynamics of the girls and how well they played together. I did on one occasion hear a blood curdling scream, I had quit paying attention to them and was working on my sewing so I am not sure what happened, but I know the little one finally had enough and got mad because the two older girls would not let her climb the tree, they did not want her to get hurt, she wanted up that tree and let everyone with in ear shot know. it brought Mom out side and the girls in the tree had to get down and all had to go inside and play.

I wonder how many times when we were young did we get into screaming matches to bring in a parent to play referee. Playing is so important to developing good social skills, you can almost see the kind of adult some of the kids are going to make by how they play with others.

With our society changing so fast because of the ability to connect to the rest of the world, I can't help but wonder if in the long run it is going to be good or bad for our society.

My Daughter and granddaughter Skype with  me  about 2 times a month so I get to know her a little better than we would know each other with out Skype. She is almost 3 and I think it would be a lot harder to live so far away with out Skype. So there are some good things about technology, but I wonder about some of the other changes that are not so good.

We went to dinner a few months back with some nieces, nephews, cousins, and well relations of all ages, there were about 30 people and I was amazed how many, including the adults, that had their electronic device on and were spending more time focused on it that the people at the table, even though we had come from far and wide to get together, we were not as together as you would think.

Accidents are happening more and more often due to responding to that little electronic device rather than what is going on in traffic. How many marriages are falling apart because one or both partners feel they can get more of their needs met by being "online".

So as I recall the games the girls were playing I can't help but think is this something that is going to continue to decline in our age of cell phones, ipads, texting and any number of games to be played with someone across the country, while we never even get to know who lives next door.

I think a nice walk is in order.