Or in another way, is the world around our children better than the one we had?
I started to examine the question from a material perspective comparing elements of technology and infrastructure. But as I continued doing that comparing my childhood version with the modern day equivalents I realised it did not matter.
When my Dad occasionally would tell me that his pocket money was 2 annas (decimal of a pence) at the point of handing my weekly twenty rupees (30 pence) pocket money, I did not see his point. How could he compare his time 30 years ago with mine. Maybe to amuse himself but it did not matter to me.
So the case with my kids today. If I tell them that our first phone in the house came when I about 10 years old, it may register a flicker of a bemused expression before they resume Dino Pro on the smartphone, but no more. They have not seen a world without mobiles or even smartphones for that matter. All other comparisons are more or less in the same vein.
Giving up that thread of thought, I took a different one. OK, so all things kept aside, good school, great teachers, extra curricular (may be more of), sensible infrastructure to get around and about - we were even.
It does not bother me that I did not have any of this technology/infrastructure around at the time there is now. Perhaps I could even be smug about the relative freedom from 'health and safety' and 'traffic control' regimes that have come about since .
What mattered to me then? Reflecting deeper, just 3 things really - one, coming back from school to a warm, happy home, two, memorable family holidays, and three company of good friends.
Yes, that is all that mattered. And I managed to have all of that that without any of the modern day gadgets and aeroplanes. So by extension, given the same denominator of a happy home, family holidays and good friends, perhaps my children are still only about as well off as I was. Fancier toys and gadgets now does not really give them any edge over their Dad-as-a-child. It just seems to require some many more skills with them to keep up with the world now, when in my time it was simpler.
Of course, as parents we can keep getting better at it, from the things we wanted to fix as kids using the position of authority we have now well. But long story short, our kids world is smaller than it might seem, and there is enough we can do as parents to make it as good as we can, regardless of the level of material wealth at our disposal.
I started to examine the question from a material perspective comparing elements of technology and infrastructure. But as I continued doing that comparing my childhood version with the modern day equivalents I realised it did not matter.
When my Dad occasionally would tell me that his pocket money was 2 annas (decimal of a pence) at the point of handing my weekly twenty rupees (30 pence) pocket money, I did not see his point. How could he compare his time 30 years ago with mine. Maybe to amuse himself but it did not matter to me.
So the case with my kids today. If I tell them that our first phone in the house came when I about 10 years old, it may register a flicker of a bemused expression before they resume Dino Pro on the smartphone, but no more. They have not seen a world without mobiles or even smartphones for that matter. All other comparisons are more or less in the same vein.
Giving up that thread of thought, I took a different one. OK, so all things kept aside, good school, great teachers, extra curricular (may be more of), sensible infrastructure to get around and about - we were even.
It does not bother me that I did not have any of this technology/infrastructure around at the time there is now. Perhaps I could even be smug about the relative freedom from 'health and safety' and 'traffic control' regimes that have come about since .
What mattered to me then? Reflecting deeper, just 3 things really - one, coming back from school to a warm, happy home, two, memorable family holidays, and three company of good friends.
Yes, that is all that mattered. And I managed to have all of that that without any of the modern day gadgets and aeroplanes. So by extension, given the same denominator of a happy home, family holidays and good friends, perhaps my children are still only about as well off as I was. Fancier toys and gadgets now does not really give them any edge over their Dad-as-a-child. It just seems to require some many more skills with them to keep up with the world now, when in my time it was simpler.
Of course, as parents we can keep getting better at it, from the things we wanted to fix as kids using the position of authority we have now well. But long story short, our kids world is smaller than it might seem, and there is enough we can do as parents to make it as good as we can, regardless of the level of material wealth at our disposal.
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