Posted on 07/25/2012 7:37:51 AM PDT by rhema
The children are not safe, even in their own back yards. The predators have more rights.
I don’t know about all the psychological gobbledegook here, but playing sandlot baseball and football, the neighborhood tree house, walking/biking around town, exploring woods and hanging out with the neighbor kids were fond fond memories. I nary see kids doing such things today, and haven noticed that for many years.
Technologies and safety reasons. The former keeps kids inside. The latter is a natural concern given all the creeps and weirdos out there, thanks to the left and its constituencies.
Great article, and it reflects my observations. It’s interesting to note that I live next door to a large Catholic family. We live in a wooded area and those kids are outside playing every day. The parents keep “apologizing” to us for the noise...but my reply is always that it is not noise to me...it’s the sound of fun. I feel sorry for those children who do not get out there, get scratched, scuffed, and sunburned...whilst building memories which will serve them well for the rest of their lives.
And, those unfortunate children who are shielded from all reality become Obamas...and we all know just how disgusting that is.
So sad. We baby boomers had such freedom as kids. I wandered through woods, swam in ponds and took home stray dogs that my mother would feed from the table. Maybe I idealize my childhood, but in some ways it was heaven.
Meh, nature, it’s overrated. When they need volunteers for space station living —I am there.
I was traveling in another state two summers ago, and as I often do when on the road I turned on the car stereo and began scanning through the AM band looking for a talk radio station. I came upon a guy speaking in a sort of rambling manner about a lot of the things this article says ... about how we don't let our kids go outside anymore, how childhood seemed so much "better" for prior generations, etc. The voice was a bit familiar, but I didn't know who it was because it wasn't someone I recognized from my own local talk radio lineup.
He also told a caller that his most valuable education as a child came in the back seat of his family's car on long trips -- just listening to his parents talk in the front seat about various things. That last one really hit home with me.
Turns out it I was hearing Glenn Beck's radio show for the first time, and I've had a much different take on him ever since then.
You are exactly right. This trend corresponds completely to the ACLU'ing of American society.
One of the missing links for the process of socializing and learning how to mature for many young men is the lost baseball game of rotation, or work up. There was a time when kids from all over the place would gather at a local ball field and take positions in the field with three players at bat. If you were put out you moved to right field and had to work your way back up. Disputes were settled on the spot. The learning process was swift.
I saw one article that coincides with what I have seen personally. Modern playgrounds bore the hell out of kids. Gone are swings, merry go rounds, jungle gyms, see saws, two story slides, etc etc.
Replaced with cheap plastic climbing platforms with a 6 foot slide on mulched rubber mats. Entertaining for all of five minutes.
Some have, some have not.
One of my neighbor kids is out all the time, with friends.
My other neighbor kid is out only as long as it takes to go from the house to the car or from the school bus to the house. The same is true of his mom. She is never, never out of doors. I suspect she frowns on the other kids because they may have offended her son somehow.
Furthermore, they have been done a great disservice by all these assinine studies that say, "Eggs are bad for you. Cheese is bad for you." No...they aren't. They contain so much a body needs when growing. Cholesterol be damned. There are things that a body needs in order to grow a healthy, fully functional immune system. Our kids have been deprived of these things that G-d in His infinite wisdom placed on this Earth for a reason.
"History shows again and again how Nature points out the folly of Man."
I remember when during Summer, parents would kick the kids out of the house during the day, and told them to only come back for Lunch and be back by dinnertime.
Good point. I've always maintained that someone (me) who grew up outside, who hunted and fished and hiked and built forts and watched otter slides and beavers work and...and...and....
Had a WHOLE lot better idea of what to worry about in the environment than some DC bureaucrat who only steps outside for photo ops.
That said, I was an imaginative kid. I could just as easily get lost in another world cutting up old magazines and making collages inside as I could outdoors. So, I think a lot depends on the kid and HOW the kid is nurtured.
I have the urge to do the same to my 11 and 13 year old boy and girl. But the boy is a Boy Scout and plays competitive baseball just about year round so I let the video game binge go a couple of days. My daughter gets up early and goes to her dressage lessons and then heads to dive team practice during the summer...Both kids fish with me on the boat regularly. Then my wife yells at me for telling them to go outside and find something to do...I think it’s all good...she’s off all summer because she teaches.
Reminds me of a story from my own childhood, when we would venture out into the New Jersey meadowlands and try to make our way across the swamps along an active railroad bed. It was a "Stand by Me" adventure on a much smaller scale, since the hike across the meadowlands didn't take more than a couple of hours.
The biggest challenge was getting past the bridge over the Hackensack River, which was a swing bridge left in the "closed" position except when barges and other boats came up and down the river. There was a watchman on duty at all times, and he was called "The Troll" (from the story about the three billy goats) because he would chase away any kids who came along trying to cross the bridge.
One day, when we were about 12 years old, it all changed. A group of us made our way out along the tracks on a hot summer day. When we got to the bridge, the "troll" simply looked out of his office in the small building next to the bridge, gave us a big smile and a wave, and didn't say anything as we crossed the bridge.
It wasn't until years later that I finally figured out what happened. By the time we were 12 years old, a group of 8-10 kids our age wandering across the swamps probably scared him.
Besides the other things mentioned I believe that a lot of the reason that many kids don’t go outside to play is because of single parents, especially single working parents. It’s just so much easier with peace of mind knowing your kids are at home playing video games instead of outside when you can’t be home to watch and keep and ear open for them in case they do get a scrape or scratch.
I would expand on his theory and say that the ability of the Left to push such idiocy as AGW is because no one goes out in nature anymore. No one experiences the real world, but are force fed the horrors of what man is doing to the environment. I know that here in Indianapolis the most vociferous and vocal young environmentalist are kids who live in the city, spend their time in coffee shops and Apple stores and wouldn’t know a butterfly from a cockroach. However, they know all about the terrible things modern life, the same life that created and powers their little computer/social media world, is doing to the fragile “ecosystem”. If you have spent your 60+ years fishing, hiking, riding your bike and gardening you have seen hot weather and cold, dry and wet, blizzards and droughts. You realize that nature works on its own plan and that we have little to do with it. If you spend your time inside wrapped in your electronic cocoon then every hot day is a sign of the apocalypse.
That’s huge, not having stay-at-home Moms, is a big factor.
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