[conductr]

Interesting take. My son is in this summer right now. He can’t tie his shoes yet but can whistle pretty well. My passing theory on shoes, as opposed to my 80s experience, is twofold. First, the end of unstructured/unsupervised play outside means he’s rarely/never been in a circumstance where an adult hasn’t been near enough to tie them for him. Second, has to do with shoes themselves. I feel like no tie/velcro shoes didn’t exist past toddler sizes when I was young. Maybe they did but I’m sure they were severely limiting compared to the options available today. He’s even been using the pre-tied elastic laces for last year or more, I don’t remember those at all when I was a kid. I remember Velcro was a something a bully might target you for so most kids wanted out of them asap back then.

His need of this skill is lower than mine.

Another example is bike riding. I was all over my neighborhood by first grade and BMX was a dominant hobby. My son has practically zero interest in even learning how to ride. There’s no FOMO of his friends leaving him in the dust like when I was a kid.