[SmithL]

It’s for the children, don’t you know?

[AU72]

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

[wastedyears]

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

[TornadoAlley3]

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.

[cyclotic]

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.

[reagan_fanatic]

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.

[Condor51]

'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.

[Fairview]

I grew up in a semi-rural area. Memories of standing on the running board of a tractor holding onto a farmer as he drove it; of course if I had fallen off when we hit a bump I would have been crushed. By the time I was 10 I was driving the tractor myself. We also rode in the open loadbed of pickup trucks or standing up in the back of stock trailers. Rode horses all over the landscape alone, no cell phones, no one knew where I was going because I never knew where I was going until I got there. Jumping horses over insane objects (like baling machines and old cars). Swimming in farm ponds with no one around. If my mother had known any of this she would have gone mad; she usually was pretty upset about me riding alone and got sick of going to the emergency room, so I decided it would be better for her heart if she didn't know most of it. I don't know why I'm still alive, frankly, but I did have a great childhood.

Today I do let my kids have some fun and try not to notice when they're being crazy. I'm sure I don't know half of what goes on. My son came in covered with road rash from some stupid experiment with a bike the other day and I wondered how many experiments had gone on when I wasn't here.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

The other day I saw a boy wearing a helmet while riding a scooter. That is, a non-motorized toy/vehicle with two wheels, handlebars, and about as much space for standing on it as a small skateboard offers. You stand on it with one foot and propel yourself with the other foot.
It would seem to me that a horse is a lot more dangerous, but so far nobody’s helmeted for that. (Outside of sports and the attendant regulations.)

[babygene]

ping

[RC2]

I don’t care what people say......I let my grandson ride in the bucket of my tractor, ride our horses, ride his own tractor, run all over the place unsupervised. He’s a kid and needs to experiment with life. Swim in the creek, climb trees....in fact I may build him a tree house. I use to ride on the sun deck in the back seat of my dads cars. Anyone know what a sundeck is any more?

[Awestruck]

great article...shocked there are still people in SF with common sense.. I thought I was immune to this PC stuff by sending my daughter to a private Christian school...nope..they just banned “Red Rover” because my daughter and another girl flipped over while trying to breach the other team’s line.. apparently it didn’t bother her because this is the first I’ve heard of it and it happened a few weeks ago. (In fact when I picture it in my head, it looks pretty funny)..but my daughter is a klutz..she’s the type that goes at life pretty fast and is always coming up with boo-boo’s and owies.. and she doesn’t complain much about em. Even my daughters aren’t wusses.

[mcmuffin]

[GATOR NAVY]

read later

[HamiltonJay]

I hardly think my son is on the cutting edge in terms of things he’s allowed to do, but compared to many of his friends, he sure seems like it.

He has done archery, bb gun shooting, swam in a lake, rowed a canoe and rowboat, been camping, built a fort in the woods, plays outside regularly, rides a bike etc etc etc.

Most of his contemporaries outdoor experiences are basically going from one friends house to another... so they can play XBOX or WII or watch TV.

Its quite sad commentary. By 10 or 11 years old, a boy should have pretty much free reign, and know every cool thing and hiding spot, of his neighborhood.... not anymore for most.

[Bigg Red]

From the article: Kids aren’t learning how to get hurt, lose, fend for themselves, find their balance and discover minor dangers on their own - all important parts of growing up.

***
Amen to that!
I must say I am amazed to see such an article coming out of SF.

[G8 Diplomat]

It’s all you baby boomers who took the fun out of living for my generation! Have fun getting those social security benefits!

[wtc911]

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

----------------------------------------

More than once I have seen what happens to children (and other living things - to quote some unknown pothead) in car accidents when they are not strapped in...decapitation is not uncommon. Be the first on the scene to one of those...it will change you.

I am a bear about auto safety and I deeply believe that anybody who exposes kids to any preventable risk in a vehicle is a flaming, make that criminal, a-hole.

[Freedom4US]

I remember well when riding my bike in the driveway one summer day long ago, and dad brightened up and said something like “Hey! I see you don’t need training wheels anymore.” I was a little (well, a lot) skeptical, but meanwhile dad quickly got some tools and removed them. We lived on a pretty good hill at that time. He gave me a push, and I immediately went into task overload and crashed into the curb about 50 yards down the hill. I looked back for dad, he was already in the house, lol. Best Dad ever.