How did children make it through other crises in history?

Our local high school cheer/drill team has 50% positive testing for Covid.

I have often wondered during this past nine months how many people today would have reacted and behaved during wartime. Would they have stayed home, accepted rationing and blackout hours, or would they have been yelling at the butcher that they deserved more meat. I think a part of it was that the ‘enemy’ was more real during wartime, a part was that our grandparents (or whatever generation it is for you) were possibly more accustomed to hardship.
I’m not sure how it was in the US, but in Aust, where I grew up, all the major sporting competitions have the war years - both world wars - missing from their records. In many cases, clubs couldn’t field teams even if they wanted to, as so many young, able bodied young men were away fighting. And now - our clubs are concerned that we can’t have fans at games.

This is nuts. My kids are in cheer and football and im thrilled that both teams have halted all practices since mid-December. Both kids are absolutely fine, but their sport isn’t their life. Granted, neither of them are ‘superstars’ in their sport, and that’s ok too. They have other interests and are working on those other things.
I hate seeing all these parents post about how their kids will suffer for the social aspect, but have zero concern for teachers and the possible physical impact.
Your question is absolutely on the mark. Though I believe children from long ago were made of heartier stock. Definitely not the large number of self-entitled children (and parents) that we have now.

This is not a response to the issue in your post (sports), but just a response to the question in your title.

I think that this is the first crisis in history when people have cared about child psychology. During the last real crisis that affected every American, WWII, feelings about children were still very much they should obey, be seen and not heard, do as they’re told, etc.

The way we talk and think about children and what we know about children has changed light years since then.

This is the first time we are even addressing the issue of are the kids ok.

Mom of senior who qualified for region and all state orchestras this year, but has not been allowed to play in an orchestra all year and will not get to go to all state, would like to tell them to go F themselves.

I wonder that, too.

My MIL was a child (about 8-12 years old) in WWII London. She remembers going into bomb shelters and emerging to see which of her friend’s houses became rubble. She picked up metal scraps for the war effort. They rationed foods. Turned off lights. They raised rabbits as a source of protein.

She turned out fine. One of the most incredible people I know.

We can’t sit on our asses, pay attention to a screen like many of us do all day, and Zoom for a few months? The kids are partying at each others’ houses. They are socializing. They can’t run or bike? In my experience, the parents who say “this does not work for my kid” are the ones who are not parenting their kids and rely on the school, the coach and the Scoutmaster to raise their kid.

If we had to fight WWII now, we’d lose.

I was thinking this! Not specifically "RAISING" the kids, but they aren't accustomed to using other strategies for dealing with whatever sports have been doing, be it filling time or helping with excess physical energy.

Plus, like other responders have said, parents are already stressed out in general, so learning new ways to fill in that void seems like another demand on their parenting plate.

While I would agree that it is a good thing that we consider the mental health of children and their parents better in this day and age than we did in generations past, I would say there's an absolute failing on the part of the parents to raise resilient children who's entire mental stability is wrapped up in sports.

I say this as someone who has a struggle with mental health all the freaking time. I have a number of ways to cope with my mental health. It's not one and done. And if people don't develop other resources for their children they are really damaging them. Think about this, for most kids, their sporting activities are going to end at grade 12. Then what? A lot of us here exercise. What percentage of us are getting our exercise through team sports? I'd be willing to bet hardly any of us.

If all your kid has is football or basketball to rely on, you've failed as a parent.

OK, I'll say it in a way you understand.  If you've conditioned your children in such a way that they only have one tool to rely on, you've failed as a parent.  Is that better? 

If your mental health is not adaptable, you fail.  If you don't build resilience, you fail.  

ETA: some of us can build on what you said and address the OP at the same time.  It's called multitasking.  The ability to think about more than one thing at once. 

As a mother who successfully homeschooled her ADD son through grades 6-12 (he later graduated from college and now has a career in his chosen field-editing commercials) I feel peer socialization is highly overrated. My son is an only child too. He tried team sports but hated them so I didn't force him to continue. He's much more of an artsy and creative person and I can certainly understand that. The result of homeschooling is that he is comfortable relating with people of all ages, not just his peers-which is common with homeschooled children. I remember when he was a young teen-we were on a train once and he sat down beside an elderly couple and had a long conversation with them. This couple praised me when they got up to get off at their stop for raising such a polite young man. I was surprised but it certainly made my day. I have to confess I was terrified when we began homeschooling-worried I was doing the wrong thing. Now I wish we'd homeschooled his entire school years. 

I too think the parents that Katybee is describing are raising a generation of snowflakes. How on earth can it be more important that their children continue getting together for activities when at this time in our country (the USA) we are having the highest cases of Covid that we've seen since this pandemic started? Our hospitals are overflowing so much in some parts of this country that there are no more ICU beds and refrigerated trucks are being brought in to hold the dead because the morgues are filled to capacity. And it's not just getting Covid and possible surviving that is the problem. It is the long lasting after effects that attack the organs and the brain that to me is the most worrisome if you survive the infection. Where the hell are these parent's brains, hearts and minds? It's not just their children that risk infection-it's their children bringing that virus home and possible infecting others while they have it including health care workers. 

I am incredulous at the selfishness of these parents but it really shouldn't surprise me. In my opinion with the numbers we are experiencing at this time all in person school in this country should be cancelled now. Absolutely no school activities including all sports should be allowed and all should be cancelled until are numbers are much, much lower. Yes, it's an incredible hardship. I get that. I understand that. But this virus is going nowhere. The new version called B.1.1.7 that started in England is up to 70% easier to catch and has now been found in Colorado, California and Florida. It is only a matter of time before it spreads across the entire USA. That should easily be enough to cancel in person schools and all activities. 

I absolutely get that this is hard, but what choice do we have? It's like saying, welp, I'm bipolar, my whole life is just going to be a mess because of that, so why bother learning tools to cope and thrive. We can't do that. Parents can't do that. I have kids with some serious mental health challenges. I never stop trying to teach them what I know about trying to cope. I never stop looking for new tools and techniques to help all of us.

Do I have empathy? Sure, but we still have to fight the good fight.

I believe it is part of my job as a parent to teach my children to be resilient, and that sometimes hard choices are the right choice. Other parents prefer to be the pleasant friend who only indulge and say yes.

I am not saying what is right or wrong but just speaking on what we are seeing at our school. So far we have made it through a volleyball season, boys golf, cross country, football and are a month in to basketball and wrestling and we have not had an outbreak. We had only 1 athlete test positive. However, a lot of the games we have had to wear a mask, the kids on our team are wearing masks while on the bench and some schools have limited attendance to 4 tickets per athlete. I will point out that we are a small school ( avg class size 15-20) though. To the athletes their seasons are important so they are the extremely diligent. My dd is a senior and she wants to finish out her seasons so she is obsessive on staying covid free. Not to mention no one wants to be the kid that shuts the season down.

Like I said I am not sure whether it is right or wrong. I do however applaud our basketball athletes right now because when they sub out they are wearing a mask while on the bench. They usually sub out to sit down to rest/catch their breath and that is difficult to do wearing a mask. Most of the other schools we are playing are not wearing a mask while on the bench.

ETA: It is also the policy that if there is an outbreak then schools are not eligible to play games or practice.