What things do you think children miss out on today?

Developing a work ethic

Saturday morning cartoons

Safe places to fail with the chance to be guided through their failures to do better. When I was at school a "C" really was "average" like it's technically supposed to be. You could hand in homework riddled with mistakes and get a bad grade and a bunch of corrections. It wasn't a disaster and there was plenty of opportunity to improve. Now parents seem expected to make sure their kids hand in pre-corrected homework and do the base work for science projects ect. Even a "B" isn't good enough.

Same thing goes for interpersonal relationships. There seem to be less opportunity for young children to learn how to negotiate their differences and once they get older social life moves online. That's not bad in itself but the side effect is that if things go wrong it's easier to just slip away. When you can't see each other it's harder to pick up on and nip misunderstandings in the bud before they become a real issue.

Also, less hands on stuff and opportunity to just muck around and figure out how to solve problems all on their own by being forced to think about it. In all honesty I don't think the world is THAT much more dangerous now than then, but people act like it is, so there's fewer chances to build resilience. Take instances of adults calling the cops when they see kids walking alone outside. One of the instances that made international coverage was in a neighborhood I lived in as a kid. I still know people who live there. We walked everywhere, sometimes miles along big roads (thanks school for the short "activity bus" for after school clubs that couldn't fit everyone), sometimes into the woods, mostly to build dams and swim in the local creek and make camp fires. It's probably safer there now than when we were kids, yet kids playing without parents in tow is now outrageous.

There's less opportunity to earn money too. I always get thumbed down when I say so, but it's true of everywhere I've lived in the past 20 years. Nobody around me would hire a teenager to do any gardening anymore. Parents get babysitters for kids older than I was when I started babysitting. Just one restaurant near me will hire under 18s. All the paper rounds are gone, so are car washing jobs too (taken over by criminal gangs), fruit farms and hotels buy in adult workers from abroad, and so on. It's not just the pride of having one's own money that's missing but practicing the structure and responsibility if a job in a low stakes setting and learning to mix with non-family adults of different ages.

Not everyone of course, not all the time, but to me it's a noticeable trend. I see it in friends' and family's kids, I see it in the young lads my subcontractors hire, I noticed a sea change a not long after I became a foreman and was directly training people, so that was when the millennials were first coming into the job market.

This isn't a "kids today!" rant. None of us get a choice in how we're raised and they do catch up quickly, but the transition seems very rough now. Compared to where I was at the same age the lads starting work seem so much younger for all that they're "digital natives," and I often feel like I'm part babysitter these days, guiding them through the social aspects of working with others in a way their parents and teachers should have done years ago. I don't think they could handle being swatted around the back of the head by an old school gaffer, certainly not know that it wasn't cruelly meant, but perhaps that's a good thing.

being able to spend more time with people since people are on their phones a lot these days

Conkers Bad Fur Day

BMX , skateboarding , dirt bikes , Evel Knievel , good music , Aerosmith , Zepplin , AC/DC , Skynyrd .

Having their Dads teach them how to shoot , hunt and fish , consequently shyt everyone learned how do do whether they enjoyed it or not .

Not having to worry about school shootings , attacks on concerts or Muslim terrorists .

The original cast of SNL , the cast that was actually funny ,,,, and speaking of , you missed out on George Carlin .

Children are missing out on the great influence of the examples set by their parents. This is NOT the fault off the children, and it is NOT the fault of the parents, either. When Mom and Dad BOTH have to work full time jobs to keep a roof over the heads of the family, we need to place the blame squarely on the super expensive cost of living in these United States.

Family and human interaction

Coming home to an empty house after school. Learning self-reliance because their parents are out looking for themselves.

Decent parenting