Kids need freedom, too • Hacker News Board

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#331

Post by nix23 » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:29 AM UTC

watwut wrote: post #319

ornornor wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Switzerland it’s mandatory to let your kids go to and from school on their own from age 7 (I think, +/- 1 year) The alternative is called “elterntaxi” (meaning parent taxi) and is very much frowned upon. So, every school morning, lunch, and afternoon, you have bunches of little kids walking on their own between their schools and their homes, wearing a special reflective jacket.

Switzerland managed to figure out preschool/kindergarten system that literally puts even more limitations on mom then having kids at home.

What is the limitation on "moms" here? And btw, why having a limitation on one parent?

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#332

Post by ornornor » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:30 AM UTC

AstralStorm wrote: post #326

ornornor wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah cycling without lights always amazed me. At the same time, idiotic cyclists are only risking their own lives and that’s it. Idiotic drivers are risking other people’s lives but not their own. When there is a crash between and a car and a bike that involves a fatality, 100% of the time that fatality is the cyclist and not the driver.

95% is closer to reality. Sometimes a driver trying to avoid a crash will do something wrong and get injured with no harm to cyclist or pedestrian. Or will harm someone else than the perpetrator.

It’s still overwhelmingly other people than the driver who pay the price.

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#333

Post by AstralStorm » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:31 AM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #152

ghaff wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My feeling has always been... I've been wearing soft contacts for decades--and now multifocals. I do wear reading glasses for, well, reading and other close work when I have the contacts in. (Probably more than I really need to.) So maybe LASIK is super-safe at this point but, honestly, there's very little about my current situation that inconveniences me in any appreciable way.

I would not get refractive eye surgery if I was old enough to have reading glasses (since nothing fixes that yet), but if all you have is run of the mill myopia, a couple thousand dollars to spare, and you are 25 to 30, LASIK or PRK is one of the best quality of life improvements you can make. The clarity with which you can see everything is stunning at first, and the lack of inconvenience is incredible. If you’re in…

Personally I had the LASIK surgery done because high correction glasses and contacts are more serious liability in sports or emergency situations than residual -1 diopter nearsightedness. (Compared to -7 D before.) Such as being able to drive a car safely without them, or read. Or work at all.

It didn't cause any halos or dry eye. Those would still be preferable over legal blindness. The bigger problem is they were unable to correct some astigmatism and so in certain conditions I get doubled image without glasses. Still not even comparable.

For low corrections or farsightedness, the risk benefit situation is very different.

I also suspect that another surgery could be risked to further improve on it once technology advances a bit more.

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#334

Post by theshrike79 » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:33 AM UTC

I can recommend 50 Dangeous Things (you should let your children do) as an inspiration for what to do with kids: https://www.fiftydangerousthings.com

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#335

Post by nix23 » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:40 AM UTC

ip26 wrote: post #165

betwixthewires wrote: post #125

I thought this article would be about other things judging from the title, but these are good points. I'm not that old, and I remember "be home before dark" when I was in the single digits. I was going outside, by myself, since about the age of 5. As soon as I could ride a bike that was it. Basically my parents made dinner and paid the rent, the rest was all me in my own life. There was a phase in my childhood where…

Basically my parents made dinner and paid the rent, the rest was all me in my own life This is not really the relationship I aspire to have with my children.

But the relationship your kids want, you are not a friend but a parent, you can be a friend when they are in their 20s-30

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#336

Post by csunbird » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:43 AM UTC

caturopath wrote: post #237

mulmen wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Cycling needs good stewardship. The biggest problem with cycling adoption is “cyclists”. My hyperlocal blog has a guy that makes me want to throw my bicycle in the bay just so I’m not associated with him. And I love riding my bike. Cycling needs a “you meet the nicest people on a Honda” moment. E-bikes are a great opportunity for Americans to rediscover motorcycles but unfortunately cities are willing to all…

> The biggest problem with cycling adoption is “cyclists”. Most like probably number 3 or 4. The "cyclists" are annoying and silly, but on the other hand they aren't literally killing many people.

I live in an European city, where the infrastructure for biking is well established.

To be honest, average people riding bicycles for commuting or getting around cycle on the safe side, use the proper bike lanes, do not make left turns in front of the cars etc... while the "cyclists" insist on cycling on the car lanes, taking left turns and changing lanes while going 25-30 km/h on 50km/h road. Those people annoy me to the death while driving and cycling as well.

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#337

Post by corty » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:45 AM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #231

vinay427 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, in many places with universal coverage of health insurance, the owner doesn't know they won't get sued for medical expenses. The European countries that have often been mentioned here (Germany, Switzerland, etc.) most often use a system of private insurers with deductibles and co-pays that patients must pay, although the minimum level of coverage tends to be far more protective than in the US. Medical exp…

Well, they know the lawsuit would be quite limited. If an uninsured person in the US gets hurt, there could be nearly unlimited liability. Also, my understanding (although it could be wrong) is that insurance companies in the EU can't sue people to recover medical costs, so at worst you're on the hook for their deductible but you don't have to worry about the insurance company coming for the rest like you do in the U…

In Germany the accident or health insurance company can (and sometimes will) sue the owner of the playground for the cost of treatment, and the parents of the child can sue the owner of the playground for the copay and pain and suffering. So there is still liability of a similar amount, just the parties suing are somewhat different. There are just no punitive damages.

That is why every playground will only buy certified safe devices or get an overall certification by a known certification body. That usually cuts the lawsuit risk down to negligent maintenance. Also, there is liability insurance which everyone in their right minds has (of course you need to check if running a playground is covered).

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#338

Post by raverbashing » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:46 AM UTC

panopticon wrote: post #235

WalterBright wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't really understand some people's extreme risk aversion today. Evolution has wired us to be constantly looking for risk. If we don't find danger, we'll invent it. As we remove the riskiest risks, the bar on what we're willing to spend and sacrifice to address the next level of risks goes higher and higher. Then there's the press which lives by sensationalizing every bad thing that happens, leading us to gross…

> Then there's the press which lives by sensationalizing every bad thing that happens, leading us to grossly exaggerate risk levels in our society. Humans are really bad at assessing risk. Parents are more likely to be afraid of a stranger kidnapping their child when their child is far more likely to die on the car ride to school. Which is sad when you think about how suburbs are designed to make people feel safe eve…

Well, the roads are safe (for cars). For pedestrians, it's mostly barely adequate.

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#339

Post by nix23 » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:53 AM UTC

hallarempt wrote: post #101

nikolay wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents today are overprotective (this includes me!) and don't realize that it actually damages their kids. I was 5-years-old when my parents would just drop me off to the kindergarten and then I was on my own pretty much the whole day after kindergarten finishes in the afternoon. I would go to different classes kilometers away, crossing roads, etc. and it was common practice. I don't think kids get injured less toda…

I was a four-year old forty-five years ago. I was walking to my pre-school and back, a couple of blocks and a pretty big and busy street across daily. The cars weren't a problem. Getting mobbed by primary school kids on my way back and getting beaten up was a problem. A bigger problem was when I told my parents the reason I was getting home later and later was because of the detours I was taking to avoid getting beat…

We had a bully at school and he beat me up 2 times. After that i always had a stone in my pocket, long story short, he had a hole in his skull and never did it again, no consequences for me (apart from a some explanations). But i was 9.

Re: Kids need freedom, too

#340

Post by ibizaman » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 7:59 AM UTC

golemotron wrote: post #243

indymike wrote: post #76

I've got five kids. The more I loosen up and let the kids take risks and learn for mistakes the better. The challenge is when the adults inject a ridiculous level of risk to something that should be a learning experience. For example, allowing police to arrest and charge a child for bad behavior at school (i.e. won't obey the teacher, outbursts - not for actually criminally violent behavior). Another is lifetime acad…

This will sound terrible, but one theory why parents are so risk-averse with their kids is that 1-2 kids per family is the norm today. When it was more like 3-5 it was harder to keep track of all of them and they (the kids) inevitably did risker things. Moreover, the loss of a kid feels far worse if you don't have more.

> Moreover, the loss of a kid feels far worse if you don't have more.

Let me tell you you’re very wrong here. Loosing a kid is the worst thing ever and is independent on the number of kids you have. I have 5 kids and I can’t imagine losing one.

The biggest reason IMO for kids having more freedom is not that we have less time for them but that they play more together instead of with us. This emulation leads to more risk taken.