Are our grandkids getting too sissified?

[tallyho8]

Or are we making the world a safer place for them?

For the first time in many years I went by the playground that I used to play in a half century ago. We had a huge sliding board about 12 feet high, pretty steep and it ended in a water puddle if it had rained lately. We slid down it forward, backward, sideways, standing up, doubled up and every other conceivable way.

Today I saw a plastic slide about 6 feet high. A sign by it with a list of rules of what to do and what not to do.(everything that we had done) It had a rubber pad at the bottom of it and was barely steep enough for kids to slide down it without pushing themselves. One little boy about 4 years old was playing on it with his mother watching him. He had on a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. I had a feeling that if somehow he managed to scratch himself that his mother would rush him to the emergency room.

What's your opinion?

 

[/pine]

Forget about zombies...it's all the snowflakes that something needs to be done about...!

 

[k0ua]

With no adversity of any kind, our children will never build any character. We are seeing it now, and it will only get worse.

If you want to see what a "man" looks like now, just look at the "pajama boy" The wussi-fication of America.

 

[Doofy]

Sickly whimps, at that. In my day, we played outside all the time and even ate mud-pies on occasion. No one had allergies and such. We had immune systems that worked because of it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I used to do lots of things that I wouldn't let my kids do much less my grandkids. There seems to be many more weirdo pedophiles and other maniacal folks around now than there use to be. My mother had no problem with me leaving the house at daylight and not coming back till dark when I was 6 years old. We lived in the boondocks and much of my time was spent playing in the woods around our house. When I was old enough to ride my first 20" bike, I would ride miles from home to visit our closest neighbor kids and beyond. By the time I got my 26" it was nothing for me and my friends to ride 15 or more miles from home on Sunday afternoons, go swimming in the local ponds and creeks By age 12, I could take out a .22 rifle in the woods and hunt squirrels and rabbits by myself all day long. Back then, I could go to the local country grocery and buy a box of .22 shell for about $.50 (or less, cant remember exact cost) but there was no age limit, no security checks etc like today and no one I knew ever got shot accidently or on purpose.

I don't think I would like to have 12 year old kids out in the woods with guns today and I sure wouldn't want my 10 year old granddaughters out playing by themselves out of sight of an adult guardian. Heck my daughter wont even let them ride the schoolbus.

 

[Doofy]

I used to do lots of things that I wouldn't let my kids do much less my grandkids. There seems to be many more weirdo pedophiles and other maniacal folks around now than there use to be. My mother had no problem with me leaving the house at daylight and not coming back till dark when I was 6 years old. We lived in the boondocks and much of my time was spent playing in the woods around our house. When I was old enough to ride my first 20" bike, I would ride miles from home to visit our closest neighbor kids and beyond. By the time I got my 26" it was nothing for me and my friends to ride 15 or more miles from home on Sunday afternoons, go swimming in the local ponds and creeks By age 12, I could take out a .22 rifle in the woods and hunt squirrels and rabbits by myself all day long. Back then, I could go to the local country grocery and buy a box of .22 shell for about $.50 (or less, cant remember exact cost) but there was no age limit, no security checks etc like today and no one I knew ever got shot accidently or on purpose.

I don't think I would like to have 12 year old kids out in the woods with guns today and I sure wouldn't want my 10 year old granddaughters out playing by themselves out of sight of an adult guardian. Heck my daughter wont even let them ride the schoolbus.

Sadly, the world is a very different place than when we were young. I fear for the youth of today and of tomorrow.

 

[k0ua]

I used to do lots of things that I wouldn't let my kids do much less my grandkids. There seems to be many more weirdo pedophiles and other maniacal folks around now than there use to be. My mother had no problem with me leaving the house at daylight and not coming back till dark when I was 6 years old. We lived in the boondocks and much of my time was spent playing in the woods around our house. When I was old enough to ride my first 20" bike, I would ride miles from home to visit our closest neighbor kids and beyond. By the time I got my 26" it was nothing for me and my friends to ride 15 or more miles from home on Sunday afternoons, go swimming in the local ponds and creeks By age 12, I could take out a .22 rifle in the woods and hunt squirrels and rabbits by myself all day long. Back then, I could go to the local country grocery and buy a box of .22 shell for about $.50 (or less, cant remember exact cost) but there was no age limit, no security checks etc like today and no one I knew ever got shot accidently or on purpose.

I don't think I would like to have 12 year old kids out in the woods with guns today and I sure wouldn't want my 10 year old granddaughters out playing by themselves out of sight of an adult guardian. Heck my daughter wont even let them ride the schoolbus.

All of those activities were my experience also, including the .22 at 12 miles from home in neighbors woods (with their permission to decimate the squirrel population) and a .22 pistol at 13, and a .357 revolver at 14, and also a high powered rifle at 14 (7.7mm Japanese type 99 Arisaka) because the Arisaka has a short length of pull and would fit a 14 year old. By the time I was 17, the Arisaka didn't fit any more.

Starting about age 9 I would walk the 3 miles to my buddy's house and we would play all day with his BB gun. As long as I was home by dark (about 8:30pm in summer) I was good.

 

[Thomas]

Some safety measure today are good,but you gotta let kids be kids and test the water...playing dodge,tag,let there knees get grass stain etc.

 

[bcp]

Denmark:

Kids Gone Wild: Denmark's Forest Kindergartens - YouTube

Bruce

 

[George2615]

Agree that things have changed since when we were kids.
Guns at young age to pick off squirrels, rabbits and chipmunks. Nobody ever got shot.
Rode my bike 35 miles one way to visit grandparents who were surprised to see me that far from home on my bike. They called Mom and Dad and I spent the night and rode home the next day. No helmet, knee pads etc. Just followed the law and rode with traffic.
No cell phones or video games. We had to make up our own games or things to do. We had to use our minds. We didn't even have a TV until 1956 and then it was B&W.
Rode in the back of open pick ups without seat belts. Most vehicles didn't even have seat belts then.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
When we did wrong we got spanked either by hand or with a belt. Nobody would ever call the police to report your parents for child abuse.
No childproof caps on medicine bottles.
We had to do chores or we didn't get supper. When we did eat we had to eat everything put on the plate.

Ahh, the good old days.