via @nglwithkylie
Feral child summer encapsulates a sense of freedom that comes with a lack of structure. It’s a summer of running around the neighborhood with no supervision, just knowing that you needed to come back before the streetlights turned on. It’s about going on treasure hunts and inventing lore and being bored and coming up with creative solutions to soothe that boredom. Boredom doesn’t exist when you’re in the clutches of an iPad. It can be wiped away with the swipe of a finger in favor of all manner of children’s content. However, even if the online content is deemed safe for children, it certainly doesn’t spare them from the unhealthy internet dopamine rollercoaster.
In the vast unstructured time of summer, it is a natural impulse for parents to fill their kids’ day with activities. They send them off to camp or to sports training. They prepare themselves and their kids for the upcoming school year. However, resisting that urge to divvy up that time might be even more beneficial to your kids. The American Psychological Association says that the benefits of unstructured play reduces anxiety, helps with problem-solving, and even cultivates empathy. It’s not just cool to be feral, it’s smart.
Of course, it’s natural for parents to hesitate when it comes to letting their children roam free. There are safety concerns that weren’t as present to parents in the ‘90s as they are today. Maybe you live in a city, and letting your child be “feral” means something a little different, and perhaps dicier, than letting them play in the woods behind your house. Or maybe you’re afraid that, given the chance to roam unsupervised, your child will instead take the chance to load in a little more screen time. Plus, if you work a regular job that requires you to be away from home for hours at a time, you might not feel comfortable leaving your summer childcare up to chance. But feral child summer is more significant for what it represents than it is as a piece of parenting advice. It’s a generational turning point in attitudes toward parenting, eschewing something we previously embraced.
via @brittany_mccoy
Millennials created social media, and where they didn’t invent it, they perfected it. They were the ones putting in the man-hours as teenagers on Myspace and AOL chatrooms. Creating the networks and pathways for communication online as we know it now. Mark Zuckerberg is 41 years old, staunchly a millennial, and brought forth this era of social media as we know it. But a swath of that same generation is turning their back on the behemoth they helped create. It’s been a long 21st century so far, and many of social media’s original embracers are now turning away from its clutches. They’ve witnessed how easily it can take over one’s life and how poorly it can reflect reality, especially for children. “Almost half of all teenagers spend at least four hours each day on social media,” according to Atlantic Health. “Which affects sleep, attention, academic performance, and physical fitness, and contributes to social isolation.” Parents of young people have digested this data, know it to be true given their own experiences, and are fighting to give their kids a better chance.
For a while, before science caught up to us, some parents had a lax attitude toward letting their child engage with the internet. Thus was born the stereotype of “iPad babies,” children raised in front of the screen who have a hard time regulating their emotions and cough with their mouths open. This trend created some shame in these parenting tactics, and thus fed the sentiment behind feral child summer. It’s a trend born from social media that aims to loosen its grip on us. A little ironic? Absolutely. But the internet is nothing without irony.
via @the_mannii
Feral child summer has managed to stick in our brains since it plays perfectly into another hallmark of the millennial generation: Nostalgia. Along with Y2K club nights and watching reruns of The Nanny, parenting like you’re in the ‘90s could bring you closer to your roots and your kids. It ties parents closer to the world from whence they came, which can help the world make a little more sense. Something that is not to be overlooked as a parent. You got the chance to grow up without the internet, but your children won't. In some ways, that's for the better, but you have the school year to worry about that.