Posted on 10/13/2005 10:53:27 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy
Interestingly, I live near several "inner cities" and when I drive through those neighborhoods I think it's 1955 all over again. The kids play in the street without helmuts, use hardwood baseball bats in their games and there's never an adult in sight.
I got a Crossman 760 powermaster pellet gun for Christmas when I was 11. A week later I was sitting in a highschool taking a safety course put on by the NRA. The following weekend I was sporting a Mossberg .22 and shooting at a target fifty foot away. After three years I had reached the top of the class and just missed trying out for the Olympics.
Meanwhile, my friends went on to play baseball and football and they were told by their parents to stay away from me as long as we had guns at the house.
I later moved on to dirt bikes, four wheel driving, welding, reloading, etc all before the age of eighteen.
World Proof you Kids. Don't try to Kid Proof the World. For one, it isn't possible. For another, it drains all the fun out of life.
Which the exception of bike helmets, I encourage my kids to run, jump, play and maybe skin a knee once in a while.
They got quickly bored with the safety playground at our park. It does however make a great area to seek cover when we shoot airsoft guns at each other. (eye protection, hats and no head shots)
Bike helmets are mandatory though. In a 3 week period, two friends kids ended up in the hospital with head injuries without helmets and another friend is beyond all shadow of a doubt alive because he was wearing a helmet. He shattered the helmet, but not his skull. He did suffer other serious injuries but will be good as new in a few months.
The nuns allowed us to run on our playground (it was huge!) but God forbid if you brought one of those new fangled frisbees to school. The Principal (Sister Mary Frankenstein is what we called her - she was tall! and scary) would confiscate it and you would have to do detention before you got it back.
I never understood her reluctance to allow frisbees on school grounds. She must have been "taken" as a child.
I'd actually buy into the "no flip-flops" rule. Flip-flops belong on the beach or in the shower, but for running around and such they don't protect the feet.
As far as the rest goes, if parents want to protect their kids, put the X-Box in the trash compactor and tell them to go play outside. Or don't buy one in the first place, which was my approach.
The fact that there is even a need for something like this is really telling about what the left has done to my country.
My first thought is mulch, to recoup at least some benefit from all the oxygen they've stolen throughout their misspent lives, then I worry that the trees and bushes so fertilized would grow up and start arguing with each other.
There's a park near my house with signs all over that say:
NO ball playing
NO bicycle riding
NO skateboarding
NO scooters
Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? And they wonder why that park is always empty. (I don't...)
Regards,
Right. The same "experts" who forbid activity take on the mission of fighting obesity and ADHD. Thus does the nanny state assure that there is always a new crisis for its minions to protect "the masses" against.
This is what happens of the feminization of society -- in particular, school administration.
And it probably is also a factor that across the board -- B.A, M.A, and Ed.D -- education students are the dumbest and laziest group in college. Most Ed.D. Candidates can't do real high-school level work.
People have pointed out that this is a cause more than an effect of juvenile obesity. Overprotective schools and parents also have a share of the blame for the explosion in asthma and allergies.
This kind of overprotective environment is one reason that medical experts worry about a serious influenza epidemic. We have a whole generation whose immune systems have lain fallow all their lives.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Yes.
The liberal nanny state....where the government wipes every tear and half the fannies and protects us from ourselves.
How in the heck are these kids gonna function if they have no experience in cause and effect, or trial and error?
I am amazed at how many parents go along with this b.s. Weren't they ever kids? Didn't they have fun racing their bikes, climbing trees, playing in the mud, and (God forbid) swinging really high and jumping out??????
NO RUNNING???WTF???
We almost got in trouble for that in High School. A well placed spit of tobacco juice unnerved the Principal enough (grossed him out--right in front of the ol' wingtip) that he just told us to put the knife away and find something else to do.
I guess we were making too much noise playing right under his office window...
Provide plenty of covered play areas and most kids will choose to spend a lot of time in them. Much more effective than hats, and much less intrusive for the kids.
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