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Where do the children play?

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Re: Where do the children play?

#171

Post by CalRobert »

Vinnl wrote: post #161
CalRobert wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a foregone conclusion though, in addition to higher and blunter hoods there’s just more cars (over ten million now), and the EU may recognise US safety standards in trade negotiations. Not that the latter matters when you can import violating vehicles (like Dodge Rams) under individual vehicle approval. The Netherlands is in danger of resting on its laurels and getting complacent. Some places (Hilversum come…

No, I indeed wouldn't say it's bound to end up in a good place - just that it's too pessimistic a view to think that it's generally trending in the wrong direction. We're seeing all the bad signs we're seeing elsewhere, but also many of the good ones, such as entire new car-free neighbourhoods being built.

I’m very excited to see how bloom merwede works out!

Re: Where do the children play?

#172

Post by NoGravitas »

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #28
zkmon wrote: post #15

There were reasons for the contrast with Western world. Safety and risk aversion is a major reason. City living means we don't know what the other person on the road is thinking. This was not the case in small villages or tribal settlements. Everyone knows about every move of the others. The whole community is like a single creature with many arms. The other reason is, prosperity means more affordability to avoid ris…

> City living means we don't know what the other person on the road is thinking. Usually something like "I hope I'm not late for my job" or "The weather is shit today". Other people aren't that scary.

To be fair, combine "I hope I'm not late for my job" with a 2.5 ton wheeled death machine, and it's pretty scary even without bad intent.

Re: Where do the children play?

#173

Post by Symbiote »

djtango wrote: post #83
jddj wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Plenty of elementary aged kids use the tube

Do they? I don't think I've seen anyone younger than 12 unattended on the tube

I used to live round the corner from a private school in London (ages 5-16 or 5-18, not sure).

They were never on the tube with me, but plenty of children would be arriving at about 8:15, as I was departing to get to work for 9:00. Private school children are more likely to have a longer journey to school, therefore less likely to have a direct bus, and presumably more likely to have parents who will pay for the tube/train. (Only buses are free for children.)

Re: Where do the children play?

#174

Post by WA »

em-bee wrote: post #166
WA wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other side of the coin is that you have ambitious kids in a class who are distracted and sometimes even bullied by kids with zero ambitions. You think that's more fair to the ambitious kids when 2/3 of the class think it's cool to NOT learn anything and playing pecking order games all day?

that's not the other side of the coin. that's the other end of the extreme. there are other solutions that can accommodate both needs. the problem with splitting up schools is that kids are not always ambitions and faster, nor always slower or lazy. that changes over time. a better system needs to have the flexibility to adjust for kids as they are developing and growing. switching schools back and forth is the worst…

I agree on the needed flexibility part.

> the best system btw is montesori

I disagree on that. See a recent HN discussion on Montessori: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45674002

tl;dr: it works for some kids, just like the current German system works for some (other) kids.

Re: Where do the children play?

#175

Post by netdevphoenix »

Toutouxc wrote: post #40
netdevphoenix wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>With today’s e-bikes, even hills or longer distances aren’t really a blocker for kids anymore Unlike public transport, with an e-bike, the chances of getting a puncture or a malfunctioning battery increase with usage. Plus, there is also the very common bike theft and road accidents if you live in a country where bikes need to go on the road (like the UK)

It doesn’t take much time to fix a puncture with a tiny kit the size of a matchbox. There are also tubeless tires with liquid sealant. An e-bike with a dead battery becomes a heavy bike. Theft and accidents, okay, but the first sentence is just fearmongering.

> It doesn’t take much time to fix a puncture with a tiny kit the size of a matchbox.

That's a dependency. Now you need to remember to have that kit with you. This is like solving the short battery life in phones with a portable battery charger. You still have to remember to charge the charger beforehand and bring it with you. Small kits are easy to lose sight of that by the time you need them so you don't know where they are.

Tubeless tires are sadly not compatible with most bikes. I am not trying to be downer, this is just my experience (losing the kit and finding out that the bike I bought is not compatible with tubeless tires). I do agree though that bikes are definitely the way to go. But I wouldn't rely on them too much, especially on the electric components. Humans have a tendency to aim for convenience above all and being stranded in the middle of nowhere with dead phone and a bike with a dead battery in winter is not fun

Re: Where do the children play?

#176

Post by waps »

Arainach wrote: post #31
AndrewDavis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an aside. Yesterday I was in a shopping centre (ie a mall) and a bunch of kids ran through the food court, maybe 10 of them all around the 9-12 A grumpy lady shouted at them "kids you shouldnt be running!" I turned to whom I was eating with and our discussion could be summarised as "kids should be running. The problem isn't they're running, the problem isn't even directly where they're running. Where they're…

Sorry, but no. You shouldn't be running in crowded areas like food courts (or indoor areas not specifically created for athletics), and playing smug semantic arguments like that doesn't help. The kids aren't running because they're unable to go outside. They're running because no one's been enforcing that they act within the standards of basic decency. Kids should be screaming and singing sometimes, but you wouldn't…

[dead]

Re: Where do the children play?

#177

Post by netdevphoenix »

Xylakant wrote: post #66
netdevphoenix wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>With today’s e-bikes, even hills or longer distances aren’t really a blocker for kids anymore Unlike public transport, with an e-bike, the chances of getting a puncture or a malfunctioning battery increase with usage. Plus, there is also the very common bike theft and road accidents if you live in a country where bikes need to go on the road (like the UK)

We haven’t had a malfunctioning battery in ~40 000km of ebike use in our family. We have one that failed to charge due to age. The number of times we ran out of battery due to forgetting to charge can be counted on one hand. The number of flat tires is in the single digits - modern general use tires are really sturdy, especially if you combine them with sealant.

Must have been a high end bike because the ones I have used have had multiple punctures within a year and running out of battery in the middle of trip has happened several times which is not great if you live in a hilly area

Re: Where do the children play?

#178

Post by Xylakant »

netdevphoenix wrote: post #177
Xylakant wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We haven’t had a malfunctioning battery in ~40 000km of ebike use in our family. We have one that failed to charge due to age. The number of times we ran out of battery due to forgetting to charge can be counted on one hand. The number of flat tires is in the single digits - modern general use tires are really sturdy, especially if you combine them with sealant.

Must have been a high end bike because the ones I have used have had multiple punctures within a year and running out of battery in the middle of trip has happened several times which is not great if you live in a hilly area

The bosch drivetrain is pretty much bog standard on the german market and available on almost all price classes and Schwalbe Marathon/Big Apple tires are aren't exactly restricted to the higher price classes as well.

Now, if you're riding Mountainbike or Gravel tires, your tradeoffs are different - they sacrifice puncture resilience in favor of less weight.

Re: Where do the children play?

#179

Post by BobaFloutist »

mlrtime wrote: post #101
ErigmolCt wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cities feel riskier, but in many ways they offer more room to grow. Kids don't just need nature; they need space to navigate the world on their own terms

I'm going to get criticism because I feel HN is mostly urban based... but I don't think kids need "cities" to grow. They need nature. I picture rural/suburban areas that aren't fully built out with small wooded areas , creeks and playground 5-10 minute walk. They need to get dirty, play in water etc. When I think cities, I think dense urban areas that rarely offer this unless living in a expensive or unique neighborh…

The thing that cities provide that's harder to access in the countryside is exposure to people other than you, with different (not necessarily incompatible) perspectives and value systems. I think it's actually really important for kids to be exposed to people that disagree with their parents and learn that people can disagree with their parents while still being reasonable, kind people that their parents more or less trust in their presence.

Rural and suburban communities are far more likely to be a monoculture than cities, which, if you're not careful, can make your child's social development trickier.

It's by no means universal or impossible, just a consideration I don't see verbalized a whole lot.

Re: Where do the children play?

#180

Post by ctoth »

iso1631 wrote: post #63
paxiongmap wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have just done the opposite - left London for the countryside and am currently very much enjoying it. As our toddler gets older it will interesting to see how we deal with the challenges of letting them find their own space.

There's two aspect of "country" relative to somewhere like London. There's an estate in various towns, where there's plenty of actual public space, playing fields and grounds, walk into town, to shops, bus/train to larger towns. Plenty of open space. Then there's the real country, where there's very little public space - nowhere to ride a bike other than narrow country roads, you can walk but only in restrictive foot…

> There are 4 children in our village at the "local" primary school

Four? How... What? How does any of this actually work (you clearly live there, so it obviously does?) That seems like you're living somewhere that's just like ... empty? How do any services/infrastructure/... How many old people live in this village?

Is this the demographic collapse people are going on about?

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