America the Unhappy

Lenore Skenazy on Mar 21, 2024

"I learned how to walk silently so people wouldn't know I was sneaking up on them, even in deep leaves."

"We explored every inch of our land. My dad would ring the bell for us to come to dinner."

"I became more attached to nature."

"When I was 7, I made 'squirrel soup' in the woods with my 5-year-old brother. We crushed acorns and put them in a metal bowl, added water, stirred and left it for them overnight. The next day we came back to discover the bowl where we had left it. The soup was gone. We were chefs!"

"With my sister we'd pretend to be fish eating cornflakes sprinkled on the bed."

"How to deal with boredom."

"A sense of freedom."

"Great friendships that last to this day."

Maybe instead of wringing our hands, writing prescriptions or hiring more therapists, we could keep the schools open before and after school for no-phones, old-fashioned free play. (My nonprofit, Let Grow, has a free guide on how to get that started -- and get parent buy-in.) Or parents could try to keep Fridays free for neighborhood play.

In short: We don't have to raise a miserable generation. What kids get from play is almost everything they need to not feel lonely, bored, helpless and unhappy.

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Lenore Skenazy is president of Let Grow, a contributing writer at Reason.com, and author of "Has the World Gone Skenazy?" To learn more about Lenore Skenazy (Lskenazy@yahoo.com) and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.