A challenge for modern families

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July 18, 2009

By Helen Reynolds / news editor The Meridian Star Sat Jul 18, 2009, 11:37 PM CDT

Picture this: It's 1975. There's a 7-year-old girl playing in the dirt making mud pies. A little boy from across the road asks her to come play.

"OK. Let me tell my mom," she says. The little girl runs to his house and they play hide-and-seek and other games that kids once played. By 5:30 that afternoon, mom sticks her head out the door and yells, "Helen, supper!" The little girl tells her friend goodbye and runs home. The family sits down at the kitchen table, dad says a prayer, and they eat — together.

Mom always made sure we had a balanced meal — a meat, a vegetable and a starch. (That was when we didn't worry about eating red meat.) We talked about the day's events and everything we did. It was quality time.

Fast-forward to today.

There's a 7-year-old girl playing games on the computer. Mom and dad have had a busy day at work and there's no time to cook a good meal. So, what do they do: order a pizza. Everyone grabs a slice and heads off in different directions without speaking a word.

What happened in the last 35 years? How did we get from being a close family to just being people taking up space in a house?

Unfortunately, the second scenario is becoming more the norm for today's family. Our lives have become so cluttered — including my own — with work, school, soccer practice, ballet and other social functions that we have forgotten to slow down and enjoy life.

In the hustle and bustle of today's modern world it has become too easy to take the easy way out — on everything. I remember the first time I saw a commercial for a type of cereal bar. Cereal and milk in a convenient bar. I thought, "has life gotten so hectic that we can't take time to pour cereal and milk in a bowl?" I mean, really, it's a bowl of cereal!

I can remember the stories from my parents: "We didn't have TV when we were growing up." And "We had to walk to school five miles — in the snow!"

Now it's, "We didn't have video games and iPods when we were little."

Technology is a wonderful thing and it has greatly improved our lives in the past 35 years. But it has also made us lazy and forgetful.

Try to imagine what life was like when there were no TVs, no computers, no cell phones, no iPods. Remember how it was after Hurricane Katrina: no power for weeks, cooking on the grill and eating dinner by candlelight. Everyone complained, including me. But that's how it was "back in the day." Kids went outside to play. If there wasn't anything to do, they would make up games. My parents both remember playing "kick the can." Simple things that made life fun.

Step way back, a hundred years or so ... before washing machines, vacuums, hair dryers and styling gel. People worked hard for what they had, but they didn't complain because it was all they knew. We have become so complacent with our modern conveniences we have forgotten how hard it was for our ancestors.

We need to remember what is important in life. We need to remember where we came from and how we got here. We need to take time to be people, not machines going through the motions. We need to remember the principles and morals of our past generations. Be grateful for the great technological advances we have made, but don't take them for granted. We wouldn't have these things today if we didn't have people to invent them.

So, here is my challenge.

For one day, turn off the TV, the computer, the iPod, the cellphone. Gather the family and spend some quality time together. Have a barbecue, play games — outside! Or grab a board game (you know, those boxes that have been in the closet for 20 years). Take a short trip to the park and have a picnic or camp-out under the stars. Whatever you do, do it together as a family.

You never know what you might learn.

Helen Reynolds is news editor at

The Meridian Star. E-mail her at hreynolds@themeridianstar.com

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