Excellent message - the safe path is the truly dangerous one. Challenge leads to growth and growth staves off the true dangers of passivity and stagnation that bog us in the deepest of physical and intellectual mires.
Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
31–40 of 52 posts
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#32Some schools have banned tag. Broward County, Fla., banned running at recess. Little Leagues forbid sliding into base. Some towns ban sledding. High diving boards are history, and it's only a matter of time before all diving boards disappear. Is this sarcasm or is it real? That's the scariest part, what surely would have once been a joke is now all too real. It looks like the inmates have won. They are now running th…
The Peter Principle at work, my friend.
Whew! There is good news after all. Sure looks like my childhood pool still has its high dives:
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#33I grew up in Bulgaria. We now live in USA, and have a baby. Well, I'm just wondering where the hell, he's going to play. When I was a kid, we were playing soccer on the street, or in between the blocks, throwing stones at other kids, fighting with plastic/wood swords, driving self-mad woodcars, and everyday I was with a scratch, or I dunno what else. Even earlier when I was 4, me and my cousing, just an year older th…
Live in a more rural area. Buy a place with a big yard. Cities don't seem very conducive to families. I think once you reach a certain mass of people, the worry-warts take over and take all the fun out of everything. In my experience, for what it's worth, more rural areas usually foster more fun play for the kids. Plus more rural settings encourage kids to use their imaginations to create fun play, which is sadly lac…
Live in a more rural area. Buy a place with a big yard.
That buys you isolation, not freedom.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having overprotective parents growing up in the burbs sucks. You grow up not feeling real. You grow up with this instinctive sense that you're missing something vital. I didn't know I was allowed by the universe to do anything that was messy, organic, or risky. I grew up with the idea that it wasn't for me: That I'd never dance so that someone would want to dance with me, or play music so someone would listen to me f…
Incidentally, there's not a lot of evidence that the "hormones make teenagers crazy" theory is anything but nonsense. What we do know is that modern teenagers appear to "go crazy" -- for reasons that you seem to understand perfectly well -- and that the polite way to talk about that is to claim that it's "hormones", because the alternative explanation ("many young adults would rather risk death than be isolated and i…
It's hard to explain teenage craziness on hormones when other culture's teens don't go crazy with hormones.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#35Scarier than the playground bans was this line from the article;
>There's only one solution. Someone on behalf of society >must be authorized to make these choices. Courts must >honor those decisions. Otherwise, the pious accusations >of safety fanatics, empowered by the nearly universal >fear of being sued, will guarantee a cultural spiral >downwards toward the lowest common denominator.
Someone "authorized to make these choices" that the courts can't overrule (i.e. must "honor) is a pretty good definition of a dictator.
I suppose this guy is right that if individual rights and property rights are off the table then dictatorship is the only answer. Let's start with a playground dictator to get people used to the idea.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Live in a more rural area. Buy a place with a big yard. Cities don't seem very conducive to families. I think once you reach a certain mass of people, the worry-warts take over and take all the fun out of everything. In my experience, for what it's worth, more rural areas usually foster more fun play for the kids. Plus more rural settings encourage kids to use their imaginations to create fun play, which is sadly lac…
Live in a more rural area. Buy a place with a big yard. That buys you isolation, not freedom.
There are many days when what I really want is freedom from other peoples' presence.
"40 acres and a high-speed internet connection"
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#37The premise of the article is a bit far fetched. Kids aren't fat because our culture is safety obsessed. They are fat because Grand Theft Auto is more fun than little league or hanging from monkey bars. The riskier playground equipment of yesteryear does not stand a chance against thousands of computer games designed specifically to hold kids' attentions for long periods of time.
Grand Theft Auto is more fun than little league or hanging from monkey bars.
Is it really though? When I was a kid at least, video games were great fun. But my bicycle was too. And swimming. And exploring the woods behind my friends' house. I think there's a confounding factor in the case of "kids are playing more video games" other than "video games are more fun."
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps a lifelong problem like heart disease, diabetes, or stroke? Seriously. How far do we take it? I knew a kid once who broke his little finger playing "Speed Uno". Is that too dangerous? Maybe the kids should all walk while playing soccer. There is a point somewhere, before the absurdity of tort law forces us all into padded rooms, where it doesn't matter anyway. Our bodies are safe but we've all ceased to live.
How far do "we" take it? Who are "we" to parent other people's kids? Ultimately it's up to the parents of the individual kids to decide how far _they_ take it with their individual kids. Parents have different parenting philosophies. And that's good--experimentation and variety is what leads to learning and understanding what works.
Ultimately it's up to the parents of the individual kids to decide how far _they_ take it with their individual kids.
Unfortunately a lot of busybodies disagree with you.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#39Let's say that a township little league wants to put its foot down and take the stance that there's no way they'll ban sliding into bases, as that's not baseball, and as a result it just isn't American. The insurance company says that for the little league to get insurance it's going to cost twice as much if they allow sliding. Hence the little league has no choice but the pass on the cost of participation to the par…
In fact, the rule is in the older leagues (11 yo and up) that you must slide in order to avoid a collision. If a kid doesn't slide into a base and a play is attempted there, he or she is out by rule.
The no-slide issue is really a developmental issue. At very young ages, (levels, really), there is no sliding. But as the kids advance, they are able to slide (by 11 or 12 years old). The point is, they have to be taught (1) how to slide safely, and (2) how to cover a bag safely in a slide.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#40I grew up in Bulgaria. We now live in USA, and have a baby. Well, I'm just wondering where the hell, he's going to play. When I was a kid, we were playing soccer on the street, or in between the blocks, throwing stones at other kids, fighting with plastic/wood swords, driving self-mad woodcars, and everyday I was with a scratch, or I dunno what else. Even earlier when I was 4, me and my cousing, just an year older th…
Live in a more rural area. Buy a place with a big yard. Cities don't seem very conducive to families. I think once you reach a certain mass of people, the worry-warts take over and take all the fun out of everything. In my experience, for what it's worth, more rural areas usually foster more fun play for the kids. Plus more rural settings encourage kids to use their imaginations to create fun play, which is sadly lac…
I grew up in rural area and it was boring. There wasn't much to do beyond climbing trees and catching lizards. Not recommended.