Time to cut our locked-down youngsters some slack
SHE was a determined little thing – she set off down the ramp on her three-wheeled scooter unfazed by the bigger children around her, pushed herself along to get up speed to go up and over the little mound then continued to the end, turned around and set off for another run. This time, emboldened, she was going to take on one of the bigger bumps. But her little legs couldn’t quite get her going fast enough to make it over the top – she just ran out of steam before the crest, the scooter shot forward and down the other side and she fell to her knees…. After the briefest of pauses, she was up, running down the other side of the bump to retrieve her scooter and start off again.
We were enjoying a pleasant walk along Teignmouth seafront the other weekend and stopped to take in the action at the skatepark on the promenade. It was buzzing – loads of kids, including the intrepid little girl above, of all ages, whizzing around on skateboards and scooters. It was noisy and to my increasingly aging eyes if you looked too closely it did seem that at any time an accident was waiting to happen, but the kids were outdoors, getting exercise and most importantly, having fun.
What also struck me was how good it was to see a facility like this in such a prominent position. I believe the skatepark has been there for 10 years or so, but nonetheless, well done to the local council for locating it where it is – looking up a report of a consultation meeting at the time it was proposed, not a universally popular decision (“A Teignmouth councillor said he felt ‘threatened’ by some angry residents opposed to a seafront skatepark”).
Much more common these days, it seems, is for such prominent locations to be ‘gentrified’ to allow oldies to sit about taking in the view. Cyclists, roller skaters, skateboarders, kids, all regarded as a nuisance.
The same attitude seems to apply to green spaces. Is there a more depressing sign of our times – literally and metaphorically – than the ‘no ball games’ signs you see near grass areas?
As a kid, I lived outdoors at times, playing football – cricket in the summer – on our street corner with mates. We used the poles of the speed limit signs as our goal posts, and the street light was our floodlights; we would stay out there for hours. Sometimes there was quite a noisy crowd, playing World Cup Willy. We even, say it quietly, kicked balls into people’s gardens… And might have retrieved them occasionally without the express permission of the householder!
It was lucky we were growing up in a time when normal kids’ activities such as this were not just tolerated but encouraged.
I do wonder, if we were living in current times, how we would have been dealt with if someone living nearby had complained. My hunch? That person’s “annoyance” or “inconvenience” would trump a group of kids having fun.
Much is said that the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic must focus on young people, who have had their education disrupted, social lives curtailed and employment opportunities stunted. While all those factors are of course vitally important, maybe a start could be made now by us oldies by adopting a different mindset towards children and young people.
Instead of opposing facilities for them, support them. Instead of tuttutting at boisterous behaviour, admit that it really isn’t that different to what we were like at their age. And instead of always looking for the worse in them, see the good – there is an awful lot for us to see.