I sat at the front porch at home and I didn’t see kids playing on the block after school, or on weekends. All my neighbor’s home doors are closed and I don’t know them, or their kids. Communication between my neighbors doesn’t exist. We are strangers because our lives are too busy and we do not have time to stay outside to know each other. When I was a child we used to play ball on the street, ride our bicycles, enjoy card games, traded baseball cards, or ran races to see who was faster. I remembered running home to get money because the ice cream truck is coming or running home for help because you got hurt once brought all the neighborhood kids to your door to wait and see the results. A quarter in your hand or a new clean band aid was admired and then everyone went back to happily playing the game at hand. Now that is history and we just talk about the good times kid had when they used to play on the streets.
I go to my sister house and my nephews are with all their electronic games that replaced the precious time of playing on the street with the neighbors. They are lazy, their initiative is gone, and new inventions and communications do not exist because they want to build their scores in their favorite electronic games. Playing games alone is the most common they to do; one could be happy knowing that kids will not get into trouble since they won’t be exposed to dangerous things that are happening on the street nowadays. I see the streets empty of bustling children, but busy with traffic because mothers have to work and the kids are alone at home. Parents are working hard and purchase the most sophisticated electronics for their kids to keep them entertained while they wait for parents to come home from work. The kids have no motivation to look forward to tomorrow because they are too wrapped up in their game to even think about having fun with any friends from the neighborhood. No more ice cream truck with the music announcing that it’s arrival.
I notice my neighbor kids get into trouble because all the violence they see on television and they “are bored” and do not know what to do with their free time. They are neglected and alone, and started using alcohol, drugs and having sex at early ages, having the inability to use their imagination to use their free time for constructive, positive purposes. All of the negative repercussions happen because there is no more time of playing on the street. The parents don’t pay attention to the kids, who are unsupervised for the most part, because when the parents get home, they are too tired from the work place.
The neighbors are not letting their kids play on the neighborhood street because they do know anybody and they are afraid their kids may be abused, get into drugs, alcohol, or even worse. Neighbors do not take the time to meet other neighbors because of their busy schedule. Some of them sign their kids into organized sports such as little league clubs but it is not the same experience as playing with the kid from across the street because gives very little time for personal interaction between the children.
With such a lack of communication and familiarity in our society, time for the kids to play on the block does not exist anymore. Nobody cares what is happening to the neighbor and doors kept locked with kids inside. Neighborhoods are very quiet because kids are no longer outside playing on the street. The sad part is we no longer known our neighbors and they no longer know us. And the saddest thought of all is: No more kids on the block.