[catonsville]

I love Wesley Pruden, the successor to Menken. This was part of his column today.

We have become a society that no longer lets kids be kids. We are robbing them of a childhood

[TomGuy]

Eat dirt.

It was a well known fact that, as a child, if you consumed your weight in eating dirt, you'd live a long, healthy life.

lol

[stuartcr]

I think it is due more to the fact that this is not the same world as then, things have changed. That is why we could do all those things relatively safely.

[kinghorse]

We listened to Honky Cat by Elton John not Kill the Honky by Grandthugfizzlerapcrapass.

We played Coleco Football with the magentized playing field, not Dues Ex on X-Box where we can take the corpses and toss them in a burning barrel so as to watch them crackle and burn.

Technology and advancement of all things multicultural hasn't helped today's kid one iota. It just makes their minds lazy and their attitudes harsh.

[SamAdams76]

I first became acquainted with "play dates" when I moved my family into a somewhat tony suburb to save them from growing up in the city (as I did). I'll never forget my wife telling me that my 5-year-old son had a "play date" scheduled for the following day. "A PLAY WHAT?" I thundered. I never heard of such a ridiculous thing until that day. What a sissified society we have become.

[Taliesan]

My brothers and I would routinely crawl under trains on the way to the cliffs and caves outside of town, where we stayed until dark.

What I know about boyhood I will never tell my son's mother.

[Buell_X1-1200]

This story reminds me of all the Legos my younger brother ate ... only to find them later in his diaper :-(

[nmh]

My childhood was alot happier than what kids have today. There were no pretentious "play dates". We "socialized" with whom we played with in our neighborhood. We didn't need health clubs since we had pools and played games like army and had tree houses. Oh, I could go on and on but I'll end it with. I feel sorry for kids today.

[Search4Truth]

Children then had families, homes and full time moms. That was of course before feminism.

It is the American mother that we have lost, and the American father soon followed.

[MotleyGirl70]

Great post!

I remember playing kickball with all the neighborhood kids until it got dark out. We had all kinds of crazy rules. What a blast that was though!

[mikegi]

Not every raises their kids like bubble-boys these days. Here's our 4 year-old daughter riding with Mom on our neighbor's Harley:

[MineralMan]

"I love Wesley Pruden, the successor to Menken. This was part of his column today.
We have become a society that no longer lets kids be kids. We are robbing them of a childhood"

Well, we survived, it's true, or we wouldn't be writing here on FR. However, lots and lots of kids didn't survive those years. Lead-bearing paint killed thousands of kids. Kids died from head injuries on their bikes. A good friend of mine died when his head went through the windshield of a car...before seat belts. So many folks died in motorcycle accidents from head injuries.

We survived, but it's worth thinking about all the ones that didn't, too.

[azcap]

It is my one most dear prayer that upon their deaths every legislator who has ever voted to mandate car seats be placed in a car seat in hell for all eternity.

[Stone Mountain]

Sure, very amusing. But the facts are that a lot of children have died or suffered from lead poisoning, poisonings at home, or from bike accidents where kids weren't wearing helmets. Geez, in the "good old days," people on the average died before reaching their 60s. Go ahead and ignore these precautions, use lead-based paint for your baby's cribs and let them go out bike riding in the street without a helmet, and encourage them to accept rides with strangers, but I don't want to hear any complaining when it's you or your kid that ends up suffering needlessly. (Generic "you," not you personally...)

[AppyPappy]

Do you have a link to the article?

[VOA]

bump

[Lady Jag]

PCs and PC are two huge reasons it's not like back then. We could say and do what we wanted, could make fools of ourselves and were seen as human instead of a source of litigious income.

With three channels on the TV and no desktop computers we were outdoors all the time and parents never worried because everyone in the neighborhood, with no fear of being sued, looked out for each other.

Besides the PCs, we played with asbestos, ate things that were never meant to be eaten and exposed ourselves to every potential allergen on earth. And we are grateful. :)

[flutters]

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was particularly special.

Perhaps, but it wasn't very special when I was used as a sandbag to get down a snow covered mountain.

[Essie]

I think that it's our perception of what is safe that has changed. I also went out and played for hours without my mother being concerned. Today we see child molesters, diseases, accidents, etc. behind every bush and tree. The world today is viewed as a dangerous place, and good parents have to be eternally vigilant in order to keep their children safe.

Part of this is the way the media tends to emphasize the negative parts of our society. Mad cow disease is a very scary disease; but from what I've read, it's extremely unlikely that anyone has gotten it from the infected cow. And part of this is the way that people use our fears to make money. We are made to feel that with the right equipment that we can live in a injury free world.

[Maria S]

Good article!

Some of the stuff that went on in our house probably would have cost my folks custody of us kids: for instance, the time Junior pulled off the 500 pound TV that was perched on the TV tray (meant to hold 5 lbs. max). Dad HAD told him to keep his hands off the black/white TV, and after that, he DID!

[GrandMoM]

BUMP