When will people get some sense?

[Buck]

Can you believe it? Around here the do-gooders are so straight-laced they outlawed the age-old practice of children taking a thermos of Irish whisky to school to celebrare St. Patrick's day!

 

[mudbug]

same people who pooh-pooh the idea of bringing guns to school on the first day of deer/dove/turkey/pheasant season, Buck.

 

[Buck]

same people who pooh-pooh the idea of bringing guns to school on the first day of deer/dove/turkey/pheasant season, Buck.

I thought that was a constitutional right. You know, the right to arm bears.

 

[mudbug]

when the bears have guns, the terrorists will have won!

 

[Barbara L]

I think we have the 70/30 rule here too. Our fire marshall told us we have to keep the restroom doors closed at all times. I suppose he is going to stay in there to referee the fights that will break out all day long from kids goofing around (yeah right!). They are bad enough with the doors open (of course the stalls/urinals are not within sight of the open door, so they are not losing privacy with the doors open).

Things really have changed in schools. The kids have changed a lot too. When I was a kid you didn't ask to go to the nurse unless death was practically imminent. I have kids asking to go to the nurse to get a Bandaid, and when I ask them to show me where they are hurt there may be a speck barely visible to the naked eye. I have heard of a lot of schools banning games played on black-top playgrounds for fear that the kids will get hurt and the parents will sue. And most recently I heard on the news that the game of tag was banned in New York. By the time my grandkids have kids they will probably give birth then transfer the kid to a bubble to live out his/her life.

Barbara

 

[carolelaine]

It is hard to believe that any of us are alive to tell of those old days without all of these restrictions. My son does not believe me when I tell him about the old world. It is a shame that we restrict even the most mundane things in our childrens lives, and it is hard to watch the way they grow up glued to their video games.

 

[middie]

Gaaahhhhh!! It makes you wonder how those of us over forty even lived this long. I skateboarded without a helmet, cycled without a helmet, roller-skated, fell out of trees, wrapped myself around trees while skiing, played baseball, football, kill-the-kid-with-the-ball, you name it...PLUS I can remember the halls being wall-to-wall with artwork and the school didn't burn down. Although at times we hoped it would LOL!
We didn't have Ritalin, there were no more than 3 TV channels, computers were something on Star Trek, video games were at that weird place in the mall, and never had to be yelled at to go outside. Herding us in was the problem.
We even had chicken pox.
Good grief! How in the world did we make it?
Grrrr.
Hugs,
Pook

Oooh yeah and riding in the front seat in cars, in the back with no seat belts. Wow, we're all rebels

 

[Andy M.]

We (they) work so hard to "protect" children that they grow up not prepared to deal with life in the real world.

 

[suzyQ3]

I'm going to go out on a limb here (with a safety belt firmly attached) and say that while some of the rules mentioned here may indeed sound foolish and may not be based in sound reasoning, I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Did many of us survive what now may be viewed as childhood hazards? Of course. But those who didn't aren't likely to post about it, are they?

Although I don't think we can cocoon our children, especially when it comes to their precious feelings possibly getting hurt by not receiving a Valentine's Day card, I'm certainly glad that we know so much more about protecting their physical safety.

So sure, it was a blast tumbling around inside a car unfettered or skateboarding off a ramp with your head unprotected, but would you really let your child do that today? Playgrounds may be constructed differently based on evidence of injury to children; a seesaw may be replaced by a different structure. If you're a parent who isn't overly protective, your kids will have fun no matter what. And they just may have a better chance of reaching a ripe old age where they, too, will wax nostalgic about the good ol' days.

 

[Alix]

Dang Suzy, you're such a killjoy.

You're supposed to let all us old geezers reminsce without being logical dang it!

 

[Half Baked]

It felt really good to rant....!

 

[GB]

LOL Suzy you beat me to the punch. I was going to post something very similar.

I remember in 5th grade we were playing in the playground and a buddy of mine jumped off something he shouldn't have and broke his leg.

I remember another time we were playing some other game in the playground and a boy ended up losing his eye. I do not recall exactly what we were doing, but it was nothing crazy.

I remember skiing with a girl before people wore helmets. She crashed, head first, into a tree and needed to be rushed to the hospital.

Often times rules seem crazy and way too much, but they are usually there for a reason.

That being said, I do not want my kids growing up in a sanitized environment. I want them to be safe and I do not want them to ever be seriously injured, but I think getting hurt is part of growing up and part of life and it is not always a bad thing to feel a little pain.

 

[Lynan]

Our young people are still getting hurt and some are still dying but for other, more sinister reasons. Drugs and alcohol for one, either self inflicted or resulting from somebody else's usage. Child abuse and youth suicide here in NZ is the highest it has ever been and we are close to being the worst in the OCD. Next comes the 16+year olds killing themselves and others in the fast cars that some insane parents say they feel ' pressured' into buying for said kids. Might as well put brass handles on it then.

I for one, would much prefer to have gone astral travelling because my parachute didn't open. Or I fell into a ravine during some Girl Guide training. Or I got tossed off my horse and the helmet wasn't enough. As long as it was doing something I loved.
I am straying from Jan's topic sorry....but one other thing that makes me sad. Children all want to be 5 years + older than they are. I see 10 year olds with dyed hair, 12 year olds with makeup etc. Just what is left to look forward to I wonder. 12 yr olds need to be that, 12 years old. And do what 12 yr olds do.
Or oughta!

 

[Katie H]

Children all want to be 5 years + older than they are. I see 10 year olds with dyed hair, 12 year olds with makeup etc. Just what is left to look forward to I wonder. 12 yr olds need to be that, 12 years old. And do what 12 yr olds do.
Or oughta!

Great comment, Lynan. I'll see you one, here, and raise you one.

One of the things that makes me want to hit people and break things is the "child beauty pageant" thing. I just see RED when I hear mothers saying how cute their child is and want to enter them into pageants. One of our local mothers here has done that with her 3-year-old daughter and the child looks like a 3-foot hooker. How many more children need to end up like JonBenet-Ramsey?

Sadly, because of family situations, etc. too many children are robbed of being children and this pageant thing is, in my estimation, one of the nastiest of those thieves.

 

[Barbara L]

Playgrounds may be constructed differently based on evidence of injury to children; a seesaw may be replaced by a different structure. If you're a parent who isn't overly protective, your kids will have fun no matter what. And they just may have a better chance of reaching a ripe old age where they, too, will wax nostalgic about the good ol' days.

I definitely agree with what you said about keeping kids safe. The particular playground games I was talking about though were just lines painted on the blacktop for hop-scotch, four-square, and dodgeball. That seemed over the top to me--school districts have to worry so much about being sued that some of them are taking extreme measures.

Barbara

 

[StirBlue]

I am sorry if valentines are going out of style and the kids don't want to do it anymore. I am sorry if kids don't want to play on a blacktop where every fall is a scrape and an ouchie. I am sorry kids are too mature to need their individual school projects plastered on the wall.
I am glad kids can have a celebration without the old fashion material values. I am glad kids want to play on the grass and are not afraid of getting dirty these days. I am glad kids get excited about contributing to an all school activity like building a whale in the learning center.
I am glad that kids like designer clothes and don't need the same dress as one of the Jones' kids. I am glad that kids don't have to bring those drippy thermos anymore.
I am glad that girls have their Polly Pockets and boys have their action figures because they have both been recalled because they were made out of recycled hulla hoops.

 

[StirBlue]

And by the way, we had a really serious snow day a few weeks ago. School was not called off. One of the school buses loaded with middle school age children slid off the road, rolled, and came to a stop in a corn field, miles from anyone.
Fortunately the bus was equipped with a video camera to record the children's behavior. It also caught the driver wheeling down the road talking on a cell phone!
One of the children retrieved the cell phone and called police. Eight of the children were taken to the hospital. All the children were in the cold of winter before helped arrived.
Several motorist stopped to help. The driver was taken for medical attention and word has not been released further about this individual.

 

[Shunka]

Tell the kids to get the heck off the computer and get outside. Want to debate the obesity issue with kids these days?
We were fit and healthy...no drugs, no therapy.
Interesting.
Hugs,
Pook

So very true!!!!!!! So many of us parents are so busy with outside jobs that many of us forget what many of the advantages we had in the pre-computer world. I know that many of us remember what it was to be a kid and we knew our manners and to respect others.

 

[Lynan]

Years ago, I read a few lines in a magazine/book that really affected me. Made me stand back and evaluate where I had been and what I had done/achieved and also had me pondering my future.

Went something like this:

An ugly nondescript piece of dull, cloudy, glassy looking rock is removed from a mountain. It is then pounded and pummelled, battered and bruised, shaken and shocked. Then it is polished and buffed. Finally it emerges in all of its glory. A beautiful, glittering, stunning diamond. Precious.
This is how we are all shaped, to finally shine on all around us.. and for all to see.

If anyone knows where this came from please let me know...I'd love to have the original words again, they were MUCH better than mine!!

So I guess the moral is...cotton wool dont figure!

 

[VeraBlue]

In addition to all that dangerous art hanging, I played in the woods all day long. I played in the brook, barefoot. I caught giant carp with a piece of balled up Wonder bread on a safety pin, attached to a string, tied to a stick. We played war with sticks as guns, and played house. We played 'king of the mountain' on giant heaps of earth, jumping off to see who could get farther. We played kick ball in the street. We caught turtles at the turtle pond and guppies under the bridge. We rode three on a bike, and we did it without helmets.. We walked a mile, to and from school, regardless of the weather. If we got in trouble, we actually had to 'stay after' that day. We became 'blood brothers', even though I'm a girl. We shared drinks from the same bottle. We drank soda and stopped at the candy store after school. We did not have cell phones. If my mother wanted me to come home from a friend's house, (and my siblings weren't actually there, too), she'd send one of them to get me.

I hope the kids who live in this county are wearing flame proof clothing and only study in brick schools on stone desks with rocks to etch on.