Posted on 08/14/2008 5:12:28 PM PDT by InvisibleChurch
All the safety measures we have taken to protect our children have produced such harmful effects as increasing the rate of childhood obesity; in fact, one in six children in America is obese, and many of them face a lifetime of chronic illness, says the Center for Disease Control. However, the situation could cure itself if children would just get off the sofa!
But how do we lure children outside? One key attraction is risk, says Philip Howard, chairman of Common Good. Risk is fun, he continues, at least the moderate risks that were common in prior generations. Today, America has stripped all the fun out of playtime:
There is nothing left in playgrounds that would attract the interest of a child over the age of four. Exercise in schools is carefully programmed, when it exists at all. Some schools have even banned tag and running at recess! Little Leagues forbid sliding into base, some towns ban sledding and high diving boards are history. Safety is important, says Howard, but do the resulting trade-offs, such as the increase in childhood obesity, make sense? There is one solution, he adds, someone on behalf of society should be authorized to make these choices, and the courts must honor those decisions. Otherwise, the pious accusation of safety fanatics will guarantee a cultural spiral downwards toward the lowest common denominator.
For America's children, that means spending more than six hours per day staring at a screen, Howard concludes. Is that the way we want our children to grow up?
Source: Philip K. Howard, "Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids," Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2008.
For text:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121858701285435131.html
For more on Health Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16
We also played lots of games in the dark. Hide and seek, kick the can, and other outdoor games after dinner. They were much more fun when it was dark.
My questions: (1) any bone sticking out? (2) blood in spurts? (3) anybody unconscious/nonresponsive? If the answers to all those are "no," ride on!
My son is so cautious about everything. He’s skinny and not athletic, so he’s never been interested in sports.
Recently, my husband has gotten both of them involved in airsoft. They both love it. They go to organized games with a big group of boys (young and young at heart). They get to climb around in the dirt and shoot each other.
Don’t you know the dark can kill you? Run to the light!
That’s the motto.
I spent one afternoon with my niece and nephew, my niece ended up with two scraped knees and palms, because stupid me let her run to the pool, who knew running was so dangerous? And then my boys tried to teach my nephew ultimate fighting moves. A huge rain came and I brought them outside and let them play, they had never been barefoot in a puddle before or played in the rain. Weird very weird.
You mean you didn't spend the evenings throwing rocks at the bats?
we now own a trampoline of our very own... my kids bounce so high on that thing, it is scary... and so much fun... great exercise... i bounce on it in the mornings to add variety to my work out... it's not easy for this adult!
We used to ride our bikes everywhere while carrying baseball bats, gloves, golf clubs, basketballs and other sports equipment. Guess what, *gasp* we NEVER wore helmets.
i remember my mom letting me (along with my friends) take all the empty Coke bottles, load them in a wagon and walk them to the store for money... and then we would spend it on candy and comic books... those were the days... when i would stay at my sister's (she's 20 years older than i am and his kids my age) my niece and nephew and i would turn the coke bottles in and go to Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour... we would order grilled cheese and fries, a clown sundae and have water to drink...
One of my good friends is a nurse and the mother of 5, she told me NEVER tell the doctor you have a trampoline!
Our doctor is really cool though, my boys love him. They call my family the crash family, in a three month span we had a broken foot, broken arm and a broken collar bone.
The best way to ruin a kid's good time is for the parents to get involved with the kid's play. LEAVE THEM ALONE! Kids need to make their own rules and solve their own problems, and left alone, they do a pretty good job until the parents screw thinks up.
Oh man, that’s right! When we were short of cash, we’d look on the side of the road for Coke bottles and trade it in for RC Colas and salted peanuts. Pour the peanuts in the RC and that’s lunch.
These threads bring back lots of nostalgia!
We have an epidemic of anorexia and we’re complaining about youngsters being overweight.
How about just getting out of our faces and let us raise our children as we see fit.
It is due in part to the social engineers in our government forcing the development of human storage units, called smart growth housing. Tiny apartments or condos,in highly dense ‘transit hubs’ leave no room for yards, gardens and vacant lots or fields for children to play and exercise in.
Parents have no other course but to schedule their lives to take children to extracurricular activities, if they can’t do that the kids have nothing but the streets or television or video games in the government designed human storage unit.
I remember bringing a piece of wax paper to the park to make those old metal slides super fast.
I’d also see how high I could get a swing going and jump when it was at its’ highest point. Now “that” was fun. :)
My sister-in-law never allowed my nephew to play in the dirt- seriously she was too worried about germs. It is insane. My grandson is six and he is all boy, he has been allowed to play in the dirt, rough house, ride horses, etc. since he was really small. He always has scratches and bruises though and my daughter is paranoid that she will be accused of abuse. We have to watch him like a hawk and keep him toned down before he visits his other grandparents because they have a cow if he has a scratch and won’t let him play outside in the dirt. I don’t know where all this paranoia came from. I understand the supervision being stepped up due to the crazies but letting a child play is still possible if one isn’t nuts.
He actually got a job as a referee at a local paintball field. They pay him enough for gas to get there and back < g > . . . .
My sedentary child likes CAVING of all things - go figure - she also swims and rides horses.
My husband used to go caving a lot, but he has never taken the kids (or me). I think it would be a lot of fun for the whole family.
I would leave the rifle and bike parked outside, go in, buy a Dr. Pepper, a candy bar, a pack of Lucky Strikes (free matches), a 50 round box of .22LR and proceed a couple of blocks northward where I would try to murder as many rabbits as possible with 50 rounds.
These days, almost any of that would prompt a SWAT team response.
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