I really can’t imagine being a kid these days.
Everything is completely different than it was when I was growing up. I’m not just saying this as an old curmudgeon, so much as I’m making legitimate observations about the state of the world and modern parenting. If you go into public these days you are hard-pressed to find a child who isn’t staring at some kind of screen. It seems like toddlers have their own cell phones and iPads to keep them entertained when their parents are too tired. I can’t imagine any of this. When I was growing up, my brothers and I had to make our own entertainment. Sometimes it even included the indoor air handling devices because we were so bored. I remember many days when we used the central thermostat device as a pretend rocket control system and got yelled at by my mom for changing all of the indoor air handling control settings. I also remember climbing all over the air conditioning unit outside before my mom would scream at us for denting the cooling systems external shell. The one thing we could do with the HVAC system that never resulted in punishment was playing telephone through the air vents. Because we had a central heating and cooling system, we utilized extensive air ducts to channel the high quality indoor air throughout the house. These metal channels were perfect for kids to scream through from different rooms in the house. We would often remove our air vents and hold the secret conversations through the ductwork. These days, kids have actual telephones to play with.