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Warning: Fun ahead -- Safety first, yes, but today's overprotected kids need to live a little
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/19/7 | Peter Hartlaub

Posted on 10/19/2007 7:33:32 AM PDT by SmithL

Every time I buckle my son into his car seat - positioned between the side impact air bags and above the antilock brakes in our five-star safety-rated automobile - I think about my preferred mode of travel in the summer of 1983.

I spent that season at the Connecticut wilderness home of a friend from elementary school, who was moving from the Bay Area to the East Coast. When it was time to drive the station wagon down the mountain road, his father would often give us a choice: Would we like to ride in the backseat or on the roof of the car?

In retrospect, this was probably a really bad idea. If two 12-year-olds were seen traveling on the roof of a car in 2007, it would likely trigger an Amber Alert, four dozen cell phone calls to Child Protective Services and a viral YouTube video to be played endlessly on "Nancy Grace." But I'm sort of glad it happened. Being perched on the top of that slow-moving Ford Country Squire was a small risk (remember, this was the pre-Ford Taurus 1980s, when station wagons had giant luggage racks that were practically made for passenger travel), but there was also a reward. Riding on the roof of that car made me a little bit less of a wuss.

The wussification of American children is a relatively recent phenomenon, but a very real one. . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: nannystate; wussification
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1 posted on 10/19/2007 7:33:34 AM PDT by SmithL
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It’s for the children, don’t you know?


2 posted on 10/19/2007 7:34:07 AM PDT by SmithL (I don't do Barf Alerts, you're old enough to read and decide for yourself)
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To: SmithL

Yup, the bubble wrapping of childhood continues...


3 posted on 10/19/2007 7:35:29 AM PDT by Slapshot68
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To: SmithL

Romney caught a world of grief for riding his dog on the roof.


4 posted on 10/19/2007 7:37:14 AM PDT by AU72
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To: SmithL

I have a battle scar from riding a bike. Pedal bite is a real b!tch.


5 posted on 10/19/2007 7:39:10 AM PDT by wastedyears (I don't wanna grow up, help : /)
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To: SmithL
Holy Crap, I agree with something posted in the SF Chronicle.

My son came home the other day, jeans covered in mud. I asked what he was doing...PLAYING IN THE STREAM MOMMY, my jeans are cold and wet...

I asked if he had fun, and he beamed with a grin from ear to ear...YES, mud is cold, squishy and fun...

Boys need to be outside. No doubt it builds character and teaches them. I was a real girly girl when I was little, and boy, this little man is teaching me things I never knew about mud (things beside mud masks ;p)

Have a great weekend!

Suz

6 posted on 10/19/2007 7:39:47 AM PDT by SuzanneWeeks (Neville ROCKS)
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To: SmithL

Was at a co-workers house for a football game. Watching TV, a child comes out of a room with helmet, gloves, elbow pads and knee pads. Someone asked him, what are you fixing to do? He said, ride my bicycle.


7 posted on 10/19/2007 7:41:34 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3 ( An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping that it will eat him last..)
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To: SmithL

I like the roof idea. When we go camping, I let my kids ride on the outside of the van standing on the running boards. Or, sometimes I let them drive the van.


8 posted on 10/19/2007 7:42:52 AM PDT by cyclotic (Support Scouting-Raising boys to be men, and politically incorrect at the same time.)
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To: TornadoAlley3

I once flipped myself off my sister’s bike. Never hit the front brake when you’re doing 15mph. I hurt my left knee and it was painful to walk.


9 posted on 10/19/2007 7:46:33 AM PDT by wastedyears (I don't wanna grow up, help : /)
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To: TornadoAlley3
a child comes out of a room with helmet, gloves, elbow pads and knee pads. Someone asked him, what are you fixing to do? He said, ride my bicycle.

Was the bike a BMX and was there a half-pipe in the neighborhood?

If yes the safety equipment would be prudent and not wussyfied.

10 posted on 10/19/2007 7:46:55 AM PDT by Pontiac (Your message here.)
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To: Pontiac

No, rural area, just a regular little bike. Kid was about 6 years old. He was going to ride around the yard.


11 posted on 10/19/2007 7:48:39 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3 ( An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping that it will eat him last..)
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To: wastedyears
"Pedal bite is a real b!tch."

Tell me about it brother. Hutch Bear Traps. A shin's worst enemy. ;)

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

12 posted on 10/19/2007 7:49:25 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: SmithL
My Dad had a Chevy station wagon that we went on vacations in. We never wore seat belts, and Dad would let us kids sit on top of all the stuff that was piled up in the back. Somehow we survived.

I also remember the playground about a block away from where we lived. There were monkey bars, tether balls, angled metal slides and teeter-totters, and it was dirt and grass we played on top of, not rubber or wood chips. Playgrounds nowdays are a mere ghost of what they used to be.

I feel sad for the kids today - our zeal to keep them from so much as a scraped knuckle has taken all the fun out of childhood.
13 posted on 10/19/2007 7:50:11 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Ron Paul put the cuckoo in my Cocoa Puffs)
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To: SmithL
'We' played on the Train Tracks, hopped 'slow freights' to the park, rolled down the train track hills in barrels, climbed semi-trailers, played in the 'Sand Hills' that was the dumping ground from a foundry, made fishing sinkers from the LEAD we found in the sand (yeah we played with matches too), climbed every tree possible, blew up cans with M-80s, rode our bikes without helmets, played tackle football with zero equipment, played 'hardball' baseball with only a bat and a mitt, would get in fist fights with each other about every other week, played Mumblety peg, AND carried Boy Scout Knives since we were ten.

I think I'm dead.

14 posted on 10/19/2007 7:54:33 AM PDT by Condor51 (Rudy makes John Kerry look like a Right Wing 'Gun Nut' Extremist)
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To: reagan_fanatic
When I was growing up the family had a Plymouth station wagon that 2 of the 3 kids would fight over who got to sit in the back with the rear window down. That was the spot to be in. The only problem was when we went camping towing the Apache pop up trailer. It seems that whoever was in the back would just about pass out. That problem was fixed when the old man re-routed the exhaust to the side of the car instead of out the back.
15 posted on 10/19/2007 7:56:14 AM PDT by SledgeCS (A pacifist destroys his weapons and welcomes a non-pacifist into his home - to have it destroyed.)
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To: TornadoAlley3

I’m a firm believer in bike helmets, but that’s it.

I did have my kids use knee and elbow pads for the first day or two when learning to ride cause it was gonna be real painful and I wanted to get them riding, but the idea is to learn to ride so you won’t need them.

Beyond bike helmets, have at it cause you need a few bumps and cuts in your life.

I’m a parent of four, two are boys. One broken foot (girl who tripped) four sets of head stitches. (boys, skiing, running, tripping and hitting the business end of grandpa’s fifth wheel trailer hitch) Trips to the hospital are usually kind of fun cause we don’t get the vapors when our little darlings get a bit messed up.

A friend of mine’s son was on a boy scout trip last week and he fell down a hill. Minor concussion and a good story to tell.


16 posted on 10/19/2007 7:56:57 AM PDT by cyclotic (Support Scouting-Raising boys to be men, and politically incorrect at the same time.)
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To: SuzanneWeeks
"Holy Crap, I agree with something posted in the SF Chronicle."

Ditto

17 posted on 10/19/2007 7:57:03 AM PDT by Charlespg (Peace= When we trod the ruins of Mecca and Medina under our infidel boots.)
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To: SuzanneWeeks

My 8 yo daughter went to a day camp this summer at a local historical farm venue. Last day, they went on a creek walk. I picker her up, covered from head to toe in mud with a mud mohawk on her head. (At least 2 pounds of mud on her head...) She also had a big smile on her face. Once I convinced her mother that she would not die, we all had a good laugh...


18 posted on 10/19/2007 7:57:20 AM PDT by cspackler (There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)
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To: Pontiac

“Was the bike a BMX and was there a half-pipe in the neighborhood?

If yes the safety equipment would be prudent and not wussyfied.”

Indeed. As I type this, my old helmet from my BMX/Freestyle days sits on the top of my computer desk. Judging by the scars on it, it has saved my cranium numerous times. No way I was riding ramps without a helmet.


19 posted on 10/19/2007 7:58:52 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: SuzanneWeeks
Holy Crap, I agree with something posted in the SF Chronicle.

It's San Fran and they're talking about wussification, too funny.

20 posted on 10/19/2007 7:59:19 AM PDT by the_devils_advocate_666
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