Cosseted children likely to go off the rails, expert warns

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2/18/07 | Julie Henry

[saquin]

Article is from the UK but certainly applies here in the U.S. as well.

[cripplecreek]

My sister keeps her kids on a leash that's far too short in my opinion. Now that the oldest has gone to college she's running rampant and becoming a liberal vegan.

[TommyDale]

Why are the kids on rails, anyway? /sarcasm

[Alexander Rubin]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, the drug haze will wear off sooner or later, and she'll come back around. Worked for me.

[Alkhin]

To the sociologists who contributed to this article: I'll let my child run free out of doors in the neighborhood in exchange for the courts and jails keeping the pedophiles and rapists INDOORS in the jail. How about that? THEN you can talk to me about how they are 'running rampant.'

[Cacique]

Children given too much freedom at an early stage run the danger of becomiing obstinate liberals.

[Aliska]

I don't remember any kids having emotional problems in the 40's and 50's, maybe the poorer kids a little but didn't tend to act out in destructive ways. Teen age guys did engage in vandalism and pranks, but it is much worse now. Nobody ever shot anybody on purpose. Later when some got caught up in the hippie/drug scene in the 60's, there was a lot of anti-social behavior on the part of the young which has worsened in each decade.

The article is right on. We all played outside a lot, no matter what season, and walked to school, rode bikes a lot, played golf, swam, all sorts of exercise away from school.

They failed to factor in negative societal influences such as bad music, violent films and tv, ugly makeup and clothes, peer pressure to engage in negative behaviors, epidemic shoplifting, drugs, violence.

I hear you about the perverts. There were some when I was young, but nowhere to the degree there are now, and I think they locked them up or worse for a long time back then.

[netmilsmom]

>>To the sociologists who contributed to this article: I'll let my child run free out of doors in the neighborhood in exchange for the courts and jails keeping the pedophiles and rapists INDOORS in the jail. How about that? THEN you can talk to me about how they are 'running rampant.'<<

THAT'S A BIG AMEN!!!!!!!!!

[cripplecreek]

I hear you about the perverts. There were some when I was young, but nowhere to the degree there are now, and I think they locked them up or worse for a long time back then.

My great grandmother told me about a child rapist/murderer running loose in northern Michigan when she was a youngster. She said that some local men took the guy on a tour of the local steel mill in the middle of the night. The rumor is that he "left town".

[proxy_user]

When I was in elementary school, the principal's office faced the playground.

When snowball fights were permitted, he would put up a green flag in the window. When conditions were too icy for safe snowballing, the red flag would go up.

[lastchance]

EEEGAADS I have been blinded by a brilliant flash of the obvious.

[geopyg]

My wife and I have this "conversation" once in awhile. Just the other day I was telling a story about when I was in 4th grade at the store with my friend and we got in trouble.... My wife said "you were alone?" Then we got into the discussion of how when I was a kid we'd ride our bikes all over the place, etc. (The store was at least 3 miles from the house).

On the one hand I wish my kids had more freedom to just head out with friends, and yes, probably get into trouble a bit. But, traffic is bad around here, plus the dangers of perverts. (2 blocks away a few weeks ago some van tried to get a 13 year old girl to climb in).

I did bring up the fact in front of my kids that there are lots of organized activities that they do (drama, soccer, swimming, etc.) that I was not able to have - which is not such a bad thing either.

[Huntress]

I hear you about the perverts. There were some when I was young, but nowhere to the degree there are now, and I think they locked them up or worse for a long time back then.

I wonder if there really is a higher proportion of perverts now than in the past. The perception is certainly there, but how much of it is because we constantly hear such stories in the media?

[geopyg]

"My great grandmother told me about a child rapist/murderer running loose in northern Michigan when she was a youngster."

My mom tells the story of when she was a child ('20's) she and her sisters were walking home from grade school and taking the short-cut past the gravel pit. Some guy "flashed" them and they ran home and told the cops.

The cops went out to the pit and found a teenage girl raped and killed in the gravel pit. My mom/sisters gave a description of a car that they had seen nearby and the cops were able to track it down. My mom/sisters went down to the station to identify him from the line up - just like in the movies my mom said.

[Minn]

When conditions were too icy for safe snowballing, the red flag would go up.

God, that's beautiful. I had a sixth grade teacher with a massive pingpong paddle thing named Smackswell. Any tomfoolery resulted in two hands on the front desk and a couple sharp swats. Everybody seemed to enjoy the spectacle. This was something like 1976. Imagine if that was done today.

[SoftballMominVA]

When I was 11 my mom dropped me off at the church for a youth activity that had been canceled, unknown to me or her. When I got in a side door and walked around looking for everyone, I came across a man who told me he was in pain and pulled out an erect penis and asked me if I could rub it to make it better. I didn't know what to do, but I knew it was wrong - I ran through the church with him following me. I knew of a couple of places to hide in corridors and ducked in a room and jumped behind a desk and he passed me by. I was afraid to tell anyone because I thought I had done something wrong because maybe I shouldn't have been there, maybe I should have gone straight to a phone instead of looking for my friends who I though were hiding. Silly 11 year old thinking and blaming things on myself. It was years before I could walk into a church without looking for that man.

That was in 1972. Pedophiles were just as real then as they are now. Had he caught me I have no doubt as to what would have happened. It was luck and speed and knowledge of my surroundings that saved me. Who would have thought to look for a pedophile in a church?

[lastchance]

Let me guess you had one of those moms who

When you were outside playing and pleaded to come in and get a drink told you " there's the hose"

Informed you that unless the house was on fire, your bone was sticking out or arterial blood was spurting, did not want to hear a word from you till supper time.

Figured if you were running around outside you thank God, were not inside running around.

Considered scrapes, bruises, bug bites, sun and windburn as normal parts of childhood. Mom's like that give their children one of the best gifts of all the gift of childhood.

[cripplecreek]

My great grandmother's experience would have been pre depression era but she did say that there were a lot of dangerous people drifting during the depression. Her parents took in a few boarders but her father gave "the speech" about causing trouble. Apparently it was made very clear that troublemakers could find themselves in serious trouble that no locals would help them out of.

[cripplecreek]

Sounds like my mom. She was very generous as well, always willing to give me something to cry about.

[ChildOfThe60s]

I wonder if there really is a higher proportion of perverts now than in the past. The perception is certainly there, but how much of it is because we constantly hear such stories in the media?

I have wondered that myself. Based on changes in information and communication technologies since I was a kid in late 50s, there probably was a lot more than we knew about. But I also think it is worse now.