Give Me The Child For Seven Years And I Will Give You The Man.

[Atheist]

Is that what's happening to our children now that they have been given the internet rather than the family fireside conversation?

[nailedit]

How I would have loved to have had a fireside conversation with my parents...
Its a fantasy that it ever happened!

[nailedit]

Anyone here EVER remember a cosy 'fireside' chat with their parents?

[murraymints]

Growing up..when little ie up to about 10 ..we would do homework have dinner ..one hour of kids telly then play board games with mum and dad..or read out loud or have books read to us.. bath.. bed ..happy times

[Hazlinny]

The question, too, might query whether the parents have a fireside(if they have one) conversation?

[nailedit]

Minty,
I envy you.
(love you too of course :-) )

[naomi24]

I had fireside chats with my parents…. and when I was a teenager my friends came round and my dad chaired our debates. Extraordinary some if them were. I vividly recall one where we concluded that none of us actually existed!

[murraymints]

Love you more ;0) xx lol

[Maydup]

Today's seven year old will be much higher tech and have a much wider outlook than we ever had, but isnt that a good thing considering the world in which they will become a "man"?

I had 1960's fireside chats, games and crafts but I'd have loved an ipad too!

[Vagus]

Our children are all very internet savvy but totally interact with our grandchildren, if not in a ‘fireside conversation’ but definitely in lots of one to one, the same as we did with them when they were young. And the same as I did with my parents.
We didn’t necessarily play games but we did enjoy each others company and chatting to each other, I remember some very deep conversations with my parents, who, I think, were ahead of their time.

[nailedit]

//I vividly recall one where we concluded that none of us actually existed!//
Solipsism?
Kinda ties in with Buddhism
and something that has really f ***
my head up in recent months TBH.

[Atheist]

I think I was thinking about the kids who grow up to stab to death other kids, influenced by their lack of human contact in their infancy - pushed along in their buggies while their mums gabble on their phones, left to play in alone with their smartphones, watching god knows what. Oh, what a gloomy man I am!

[Aircooledfool]

Gloomy , yes, but also realistic!

[Aircooledfool]

Nostalgia increases with age, unavoidably. So does scepticism and being more puzzled/disappointed/depressed by how life is in the 21st century

[Atheist]

Old folks have always moaned about young folk. It's interesting having an old person's angle on life; anybody under 30 seems like a child to me, especially the kids on the telly who scream with laughter at everything anyone says. It warms the cockles of my heart.

[Atheist]

One thing I have noticed is that young women (between 21 and 55) are even more beautiful than the ones I knew in my youth (Mrs A excepted).

[Khandro]

//Anyone here EVER remember a cosy 'fireside' chat with their parents?//

Oh yes, and with grandparents too and a real fire. The only downside was that I had to go out into the cold dark night and fill the coal bucket.

[MissTerious2]

Same as Vagus. I too had really modern parents. They really did equip me for getting out into the big wide world Lots of great conversations Grandparents were pretty savvy too.

[youngmafbog]

Never had a fireside conversation with my family.

Mind you had central heating from age 4 so bit of a problem.

I do see where you are coming from Atheist, but I think that always happened - remember latch key kids? No one knoew what they were up to.

Also 'in the old days' you got hard time for breaking into a meter now you get a slap on the wrist for knifing someone.