Hey this is an interesting article and the premise kinda sort maybe makes sense to me, but the article itself makes the assertion that increased safety is creating fatter kids without making even the lamest attempt at proving a causal relationship. Correlation != causation, and in such an audacious claim in particular, especially for an article published in WSJ, that is utterly irresponsible.
Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
41–50 of 52 posts
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#42I 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…
> worry-warts take over and take all the fun out of everything.
What an intriguing thing to say. Many people I've spoken to claim that all the fun is in the city. I guess it's a kind of caged, packaged fun.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#43Earlier 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.
"it's up to the parents of the individual kids to decide how far _they_ take it with their individual kids."
How would you handle situations like sliding in baseball, where the kid who bears the greatest risk of injury isn't the one who slides into the base but rather the one whose getting slid into?
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#44The 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.
I miss monkey bars and swing sets. :(
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I always thought the craziness was just better channeled by other cultures.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's hard to explain teenage craziness on hormones when other culture's teens don't go crazy with hormones.
I always thought the craziness was just better channeled by other cultures.
That's possible, but part of the "craziness" is intentionally choosing things that are destructive and anti-social.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#47Earlier 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…
> worry-warts take over and take all the fun out of everything. What an intriguing thing to say. Many people I've spoken to claim that all the fun is in the city. I guess it's a kind of caged, packaged fun.
How old are the people claiming all the fun is in the city?
If you are in your 20s, living in a city is where all the other people your age are. Cities are where they work, and therefore where they play. That's where you can find other people your age to play softball or soccer or even dodgeball or 4-square. It's where you have a selection of quality, live entertainment any weekend you want and go out dancing afterwards. It's where you can make friends and stay active.
But the resulting traffic of adults doing things makes it difficult for children to find room to play and explore. They can still do it, but it's more dangerous and less rewarding. That's where the 'worry-warts' come in.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#48Some 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…
Little League is structured play to begin with. There's a lot that is fun, valuable, and risky about baseball without worrying about a rule meant to protect kids from trying things they aren't ready for yet-- breaking wrists and ankles in the process. It's not stopping kids from learning to slide on their own if they want.
That other stuff seems pretty dumb, though.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#49Earlier 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…
I grew up in rural area and it was boring. There wasn't much to do beyond climbing trees and catching lizards. Not recommended.
I said the same thing to my folks when growing up, and I heard it from my kids.
These were the same kids who not only climbed trees, but built model rockets, swam in the pond, got their ham radio license, learned to ride in the bed of a pickup truck without falling out, went hiking every week, learned to write their own programs because they were "so bored", built dams in the creek, cleared brush and built huge bonfires on the weekends, went on field trips all over the eastern seaboard with various community groups, etc.
Yep. Nothing to do.
Re: Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want an insurance company to charge less to insure an activity, make that activity cheaper. If you think that insurance companies are overstating risk, put your money up and price that risk "correctly". If you're correct, you'll get rich and they'll either adopt your methods or go out of biz.
We're talking about liability insurance, not health insurance. The root problem here is tort law, not accident statistics.
> We're talking about liability insurance, not health insurance. The root problem here is tort law, not accident statistics.
Which is why I wrote
>> If you want an insurance company to charge less to insure an activity, make that activity cheaper.
Tort law is part of the cost of an activity.