Posted on 08/28/2014 2:25:24 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Parents are worried about their children playing football, but most haven’t decided to keep their kids from putting on a helmet and stepping onto the field.
According to an Associated Press-GfK poll, nearly half of parents said they’re not comfortable letting their child play football amid growing uncertainty about the long-term impact of concussions.
In the poll, 44 percent of parents weren’t comfortable with their child playing football. The same percentage was uncomfortable with ice hockey, and 45 percent were uncomfortable with participation in wrestling. Only five percent, though, said they have discouraged their child from playing in the last two years as concern over head injuries has increased at all levels of the game.
The majority of parents said they are comfortable with participation in a host of other sports—including swimming, track and field, basketball, soccer, baseball and softball, among others. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
“...ah, the beauty of online fora...they afford the opportunity to post utter nonsense...as witnessed by the above...”
Funny, as a parent I considered my job to PROTECT my kids from getting their brains re-arranged, regardless of what the kid wants. That’s why I’m at a loss as to why otherwise well-intentioned parents would let their kids sustain that level of damage, often wrecking their lives.
But maybe you know the answer?
Fact: the football equipment including helmets of today are far more safety designed than the ones of my youth. Fact: Rules have changed in many contact sports to lessen the chance of serious injuries. Any kid is safer playing a contact sport than the drive in a vehicle getting there to start with.
You can over protect to the point of a child becoming dysfunctional lacking any confidence. Previous generations such as my grandparents born in the late 1800's knew this. So did my parent born in the late 1920's. Dad and his brother back in the late 1930's early 1940's would spend their summers alone at a river camp hunting and fishing from about age 12 on. My grandfather or an uncle checked on them on the weekends. They were 40 miles from home. They did know a nearby farmer they could go to in an emergency but other than that they were doing what they enjoyed. A river contains risk requiring skill. My uncle and grandfather taught it to them before leaving them to camp alone. Today that would get a CPS call for abuse. What abuse?
The sports injury hysteria stem from the same mindset as the anti-gun mindset. Think not? What excuse do they use? It's for da children usually. I was raised in a home with firearms well within my reach all my childhood. Mom didn't have locks on cabinets in the kitchen etc. We were brought up Hands Off and a busted sitter reinforced it. Today what do we see? Busting a child's butt is child abuse now and parents who don't lock up guns and cabinets are criminals. What's wrong with this picture?
Adults as parents are being suckered into liberal mindset thinking one agenda at a time. Liberals have changed even conservative homes and how parents bring up children however most are oblivious to the fact because it was done slowly over a generation of time.
Part of the paranoid parenting of today may be due to better information delivery (i.e., the Internet). Part of it is also due to crazies out there that used to be locked up...but not anymore. Part of it is also due to a country that continues to ‘evolve’ ethnically, and not in a good way.
However, my point wasn’t about society in general, it was about how the SAME PEOPLE that helicopter over their kids allow them to bash their brains in playing football, when the long-term results are a given (regardless of the lack of immediate impacts)...they seem to drop the hovering when it comes to football, knowing full-well the damage it’s doing...my point is that these parents feel some sense of superiority over other parents or else they’d put an end to their kids playing football, as they do with just about everything else potentially harmful to their kids.
mine too. closest thing to rugby for an American boy when athletic wear was your torn jeans or corduroys.
we knew what it meant, that’s why you smear ‘em.
You listen to too many feminists.
Or I listen to too many neurosurgeons. My kids’ future is worth more than your opinion.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tomorrow night across the nation feminists will be gnashing their teeth at the prospect of boys competing on the playing field in front of large crowds, of bands and majorettes performing during intermission and worst of all, cheerleaders cheering on the boys.
The Saturday lineup of college football will further enrage the feminists and by Sunday, they'll be on the brink of going postal.
Or someone who couldn't make the team finding ways to show his envy toward those who did.
As P.C. as the NFL has gotten, so what?
Kinda homo, dontcha think?
Whether I made the team back in high school or not is immaterial (I did, but it was a crappy team). What counted was what I did after high school; I joined a real team - the Marines - and fought for real. Kid games in fields became massively less important.
Youth baseball has gotten out of hand with all these travel teams and leagues. Kids are recruited, trained and cut, just like the pros. For the parents, it's mandatory travel for all the tournaments their kid is required to play in if they want to stay on the team.
Uniforms? Ha! Just the other day a friend was telling me about his young grandson who had to go to a "fitting" for his full uniform. Hell, when I played little league, all we got was a used cotton t-shirt and ball cap......LOL!
I played, and thoroughly enjoyed, youth football. Those are some of the most precious memories of my childhood.
I remember one kid in my 6th grade YMCA league, cannot recall his name. The coach put him at linebacker, but the kid was terrible. He was big enough, but he was scared to tackle anybody. He was nervous and unsure of himself. He seemed like he would have rather been home collecting stamps. One day in practice, the RB ran right at him and the kid just pushed him out of the way so as not to get run over. Coach got all over him for that.
But, before long, the kid started gaining confidence. He started believing in himself. He earned a starting position and played some good games. Then, the kid went nuts and began playing his guts out — he became a terror at linebacker, making plays all over the field. He became fearless and probably our best player on defense.
His transformation from scared kid afraid of his shadow to a mini version of Dick Butkus was fascinating to watch.
I’ve thought about that kid through the years. I know without a doubt that playing in that league was a turning point in his life.
My kid played football one season and loved it. But he got tired of the headaches and decided it wasn’t for him. (and I am glad) And that was Junior High ball.
LOL Great Movie!!!!!!!!!!
No. That thought never occurred to me but it appears to do something to you.
But maybe you know the answer?
...nope,I have no idea why you would make a nonsensical statement about parents pursuing bragging rights being a rationale for abnegation of parental duty...not only is the comment demonstrably wrong, it is an insult...but, like I said, online fora are a great place for holier than thous to spout off...
...and how many of the thousands of young men who have played football over the years have had their brains rearranged, and their lives wrecked...?
...Verifiable numbers, please...
Or there will be men in their living rooms, sitting on their sofas, drinking beer watching other men in tight pants running around a field chasing a ball.
Kinda homo, dontcha think?
.what I think is you’ve made some strange posts...
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