Nikki Osborne: What hope do kids have when we are so obsessed with rules and precaution

We’ve mistakenly taken away one thing that children love, meaning they can no longer just mess about and be kids.

Nikki Osborne

I often ask myself why my two children are not out exploring the big wide world like I was at their age?

While being guilty of the much-overused expression “back in my day …” I really do wonder why they don’t want to be spending more time outdoors or going to shops or meeting up with their friends to … well do what I wanted to do … get away from my parents.

I appreciate that in this digital age there can be a plethora of far more stimulating distractions like social media, computer games, MrBeast, and the AI apocalypse keeping our younger generations tied to their home Wi-Fi.

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Does the great Aussie dream even exist any more or is it gone?

The constant newsfeed online and on social media is no doubt partly to blame for convincing us to never leave the house.

But, despite the very real and serious rise in youth crime, on the whole we live in a far safer place than the one I grew up in.

Society’s obsession with rules and precaution means kids can’t just mess about and be kids.

We have safer roads with slower speeds, safer crossings, bike trails and safer bikes where you have to wear a helmet (electric scooters are a bit of an unknown so maybe I’ll get to that another time).

We also have lifesavers at pools and beaches, mandatory pool fencing, CCTV on streets and in public places. For the most part in Australia we live almost in a utopia.

However, have we mistakenly taken away the sense of danger from the world? I can’t help feeling that the very rules and laws that we keep rolling out to make us feel safer have now meant escaping home has lost its mystique.

And therein lies the problem … if we can’t let kids be kids and let them explore boundaries whenever they’re away from home, what is the incentive to want to explore anything!

The media bombards us with messages that our young people are spending way too much time on their screens.

But, if society’s obsession with rules and precaution means they can’t just mess about and be kids, what’s the incentive to put their gadgets down? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

There’s a rather frustrating hypocrisy entering our society and I’m here today to call it out, nay, fight back!

We’ve recently moved to a house that’s next to a little bit of beach that runs along the front of neighbouring houses. Now, part of me – the bit beaten down by the societal oppression of Karens and helicopter parents; makes me want to tell the kids not play on the sand with their dog for fear of persecution.

Overwhelmed with the angst of previous scrutiny – when I’d let my kids off the leash and, I dunno, let my kids be kids – I called them in to instead stay inside and stay out of trouble on their iPads. Then it hit me.

I don’t know if it was the smell of teen spirit or just a nostalgic burst of Breakfast Club, but all of a sudden I went, no bugger it: “Kids, get your butts back on that beach and I don’t want you back until you’re filthy, hyperthermic and you see the street lights come on!”

I could then see their faces light up because they, too, have been feeling closed in by the litany of rules.

It was brilliant! Now, we haven’t had any altercations as yet, but if we do, I’ll be sure to remind them of what “back in my day” actually means.

Originally published as Nikki Osborne: What hope do kids have when we are so obsessed with rules and precaution