USAToday/Gannett encourages kids to be kids and parents to give them downtime.
Angela Stephens writes (excerpt):
In his book “Putting Family First: Successful Strategies for Reclaiming Family Life in a Hurry-Up World” (Owl Books, $14), Doherty cites a University of Michigan study that found children have lost 12 hours per week of free time since the late 1970s. There’s been a 25 percent drop in playing and a 50 percent drop in unstructured outdoor activities.
“Kids used to have a world of their own,” Rosenfeld says. “Most of the time they were free to invent their own world. They learned to make things happen. Make up a game. What does that mean if they don’t do these things anymore?”