Hey Spud, where are you? What are your thoughts on this?

Seriously, when I was a kid I couldn't wait to "go outside and play."
Come to think of it, my folks couldn't wait for me to go outside and play either.
My Mom had a small bell she would ring outside the front door when it was time for us to come in for dinner. I still have it.

In some neighborhoods, you don't want your children running around outside.

Even in the nicest neighborhoods, you still need to be concerned with predators.

My 13 year old would be in the same boat if I didn't have him go on a 3 hour bike ride with me once a week and walk the dog several times a day.

On the plus side I guess all that X-Box playing has given him excellent eye hand coordination and thumbs that belong in the Guinness Book of Records.

.......there should be a law against children under 12 watching tv.....

......it damages reading ability.....which is thinking ability.......

Even in the nicest neighborhoods, you still need to be concerned with predators.

Posted by Roy_Batty

There's the problem, the media has the public so obsessed with the unreal fear of such things. Most of the parents in my neighborhood would rather have their kids sitting in the house staring at the tube because they feel they're safer. I'm always kicking my son out of the house to go to the park or go skating.
And yes, we live in the city.

Hey Spud, where are you? What are your thoughts on this?

Posted by member2586 at 2008-07-16 04:44 PM | Reply | Flag:

...and then this....

Even in the nicest neighborhoods, you still need to be concerned with predators.

Posted by Roy_Batty at 2008-07-16 05:44 PM | Reply | Flag:

DudSpud(tm) is most likely out lurking in the neighborhood.

"While 90 percent of 9-year-olds get a couple of hours of exercise most days, fewer than 3 percent of 15-year-olds do."

Seems a bit off. Fewer than 3 percet of 15 year olds participate in high school sports?

I don't think so.

Take away the Playstation and they will go outside.

Play WITH your kids.
They love it.

They tend to be better behaved and also more pleasant and affectionate towards you when you spend some time playing with your kids, instead of just sending them out of the house to play without you.

"In some neighborhoods, you don't want your children running around outside.

Even in the nicest neighborhoods, you still need to be concerned with predators."

Posted by Roy_Batty

Now there is an incredibly paranoid point of view.

if your kids are old enough to "run around" a neighborhood, they are old enough for you to have taught them how to be safe ( i.e. stay away from strangers in Vans )

"Now there is an incredibly paranoid point of view."

Depends on the neighborhood. Some of the best parents I know have that "paranoia" and some of the best kids I know.

Well if you are out playing with them you don't have to worry about the predators (well besides drive by shootings if your neighboor hood is that bad.)

Last night we went out and shut down the road outside the house and played street hockey with the kids, half the neighboor hood kids showed up to join us we had a great game and guess what grown ups need the exercise too.

.......there should be a law against children under 12 watching tv.....

......it damages reading ability.....which is thinking ability.......

Posted by skizziks at 2008-07-16 07:34 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)
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Hmm don't tell that to my daughter she is 12 she has watched TV her whole life she also has read more than most adults. She will gladly put the book down to watch a good show (avatar countdown to the comet on all this week) but as soon as what she wants to watch is over up goes the book and off goes the TV.

Maybe setting a good example is more important to the kid than being a TV nazi.

they are old enough for you to have taught them how to be safe ( i.e. stay away from strangers in Vans )

Posted by Fredo_C

You are a dumbshit. The majority of abductions are by a relative.

"You are a dumbshit. The majority of abductions are by a relative."

So why is it stupid to tell kids to stay away from strangers and their vehicles?

Abductions by relatives tend to be alot less nasty than abductions by strangers and kids have been pulled into cars. This is common sense advice.

"You are a dumbshit. The majority of abductions are by a relative."

So kids shouldn't be going outside because they might be abducted by a relative?

Last night we went out and shut down the road outside the house and played street hockey with the kids, half the neighboor hood kids showed up to join us we had a great game and guess what grown ups need the exercise too.

Posted by Taowarrior

Don't you need a permit to do that?

The street is public property.

Are you being serious?

Are you being serious?

Posted by JOE

Just asking a question... where I grew up, cops would be called. You can play in the street, but you can't shut down the road. Cars have the right of way at all times. Unless you get a permit for a block party or something.

I guess it depends where you're from. Not sure what he meant by "shut down the road," but we used to play hockey in my street all the time. Cars wouldn't be able to pass but it didn't really matter to anyone.

Yes we did not literaly shut down the road but there was no going past till we cleared out, however our road is a loop so most people just went the long way around.

I supose someone could have called the cops but like I said all the kids in the "hood" were there so they probably would have been calling the cops on their own kid. Also I go out drinking with the officer who responds so I don't think much would have happened to me.

Also I go out drinking with the officer who responds so I don't think much would have happened to me.

Posted by TaoWarrior

Cops wouldn't do anything in my neighborhood either, beyond letting us know that play would have to stop whenever a car needed to get by... which would become a pain in the ass, so we'd find a nearby culdesac that got hardly any traffic.

Yeah thats kinda what our street is like, plus we play between two speed bumps so most people try and avoid that stretch anyway.

Only down side is there is a slight down hill pitch in that section, fortunatly the downhill speed bump helps slow the balls down so we can catch them.

Funny thing is I did not even realize my buddy was the main one who responds in my area till yesterday when we were talking. He was bitching about a lady who yells at them every time they drive through the area and I was like hey thats my neighbor. Thats when I found out he is my local patrol man.

Hey you bunch of fat-fucks, get off your lazy asses and go mow the lawn.

I know a bunch of parents who have very able teenagers that don't have to do any chores at all. I know of several single moms that don't make their 15 year old sons cut the grass nor shovel (or snow blow) the driveway. Instead, they do it themselves.

WTF?!?! If I had ever let my mother mow the lawn or shovel snow and not either told her that I would do it for her, or at least helped her, my father would have broke his foot off in my ass.....not to mention that I would have felt like shit for letting my mother do all that work and not having helped.

STOP being your kids 'friend' and be their parent. They will thank you for it later, and so will I when I don't have to deal with a bunch of lazy, whiny, fat fucks with an incredible sense of entitlement.

So kids shouldn't be going outside because they might be abducted by a relative?

Posted by JOE

That is not what I am saying.

I am saying that "stranger danger" is misdirected. Yes kids should never get into a car with someone they do not know, but that the majority of abductions is by a relative (a grandparent, an exspouse, etc) so they need to be educated of that as well.

Kids are lazy. Left to their own devices, they always will be. The difference is that parents used to instill in some of them a sense of importance in being active, at the very least during the summer months. My younger cousins now sit on their asses all summer playing video games, and most of their friends do the same.

I guess that's why all the 18 year old cashiers and baggers at the grocery store are constantly complaining out loud about being "tired." They've never had to lift a finger in their lives and are overwhelmed at the idea of having to do anything.

WTF?!?! If I had ever let my mother mow the lawn or shovel snow and not either told her that I would do it for her, or at least helped her, my father would have broke his foot off in my ass.....

Posted by COMMONSENSE

Same here, except that my mom would never have missed the opportunity to employ her own foot for that purpose.

I'm always entertained by these type of threads. Whether it's bashing children today for being lazy, dumb, rude, etc., it always goes the same way. We all get deride "kids today" and reminisce about how tough we had it, and how "back then" kids were respectful, smart, and hardworking.

It's been a few decades since I was a teen but I seem to recall being pretty lazy and generally angry/apathetic most of the time. I also hated my job and didn't try terribly hard at school.

I actually give kids today a lot of credit. Between my nieces and nephews and my friends children, I'm amazed how busy they are. Just about every one of them (whether it sports, band, scouts, etc.) spends at least 2 or 3 hours at some kind of activity after school. I also find it remarkable how much they know about the world and the pressure they put on themselves with AP classes, planning their lives around getting into a good college, and work.

I think it's pretty universal for older generations to look down on the younger ones. My grandmother had a very funny story that demonstrated this... When she was a child growing up during the depression, her grandmother would go on tirades about how easy kids had it, and would always compare it to how tough she had it while living through the Panic of 1893.

Give it a couple of decades, and the teenagers today will be doing exactly the same thing.

"I'm always entertained by these type of threads. Whether it's bashing children today for being lazy, dumb, rude, etc., it always goes the same way. We all get deride "kids today" and reminisce about how tough we had it, and how "back then" kids were respectful, smart, and hardworking."

I pretty much feel the same way and I think the statistics presented in this article are suspect at best.

But I do know some parents who seem to be training their kids to be brats (who then grow up and become jerks).

We all get deride "kids today" and reminisce about how tough we had it, and how "back then" kids were respectful, smart, and hardworking.

Posted by katieberry

I wasn't deriding kids... kids will be kids; they will try to get away with anything that they can. I was deriding parents who ALLOW these kids to become lazy fatasses.

"Now there is an incredibly paranoid point of view."

Depends on the neighborhood. Some of the best parents I know have that "paranoia" and some of the best kids I know.

Posted by danni

It is still a paranoia. You have to quit living like a mouse in the house. I guess you need to bar all the windows too so you can't get out if there is a fire.

"It is still a paranoia."

You seem to be very sheltered. There are neighborhoods where you can't just send your kids outside to play for a variety of reasons - gangs, drugs, syringes in the playground, unsafe piles of waste in the alleys, unsafe vacant buildings, drunks, crackheads, etc.

If you are a fat kid or have a fat kid, it's plain and simple CHILD ABUSE from the parents.

I wasn't deriding kids... kids will be kids; they will try to get away with anything that they can. I was deriding parents who ALLOW these kids to become lazy fatasses.

Amen brother. What really bites is the parents that do want their kids to get out and move once in a while have to deal with the "Jenny's parents don't make her go out and play" now what is a parent going to say? Yep well that's why Jenny is a fat ass? Great parenting there.

Most people cannot discipline their children because they are so insecure themselves. they cannot stand the possibility that their children will not be their friend, regardless of the fact that the lack of structure and discipline is destroying the childs life.

Then you have the ones that wouldn't know how to teach a child anything because they don't know anything.

726 whassamatta?

Nobody to help you pile on fredo here?

You just tried to make the stupidest fuckin point in the history of DR.

I was talking about teaching kids to be safe from strangers so they can be able go out and about their neighborhoods , but that makes me a dumb shit? because maybe a kids grandma will abduct them?

So instead I should teach kids " go play in the van parked down the street, but BEWARE of grandma?"

You are a loser fuck.

Hell you are more obnoxious and stupid than I am.

Holy fuck.

It is still a paranoia. You have to quit living like a mouse in the house. I guess you need to bar all the windows too so you can't get out if there is a fire.

Posted by Sniper at 2008-07-17 03:37 PM | Reply | Flag:

This is amusing coming from one the 'hadnguns for all' nutcases.

Talk about paranoia.