A Nation of Wimps

psychology today. ^ | 5 Jul 2006 | Hara Estroff Marano

[tbird5]

Maybe it's the cyclist in the park, trim under his sleek metallic blue helmet, cruising along the dirt path... at three miles an hour. On his tricycle.

Or perhaps it's today's playground, all-rubber-cushioned surface where kids used to skin their knees. And... wait a minute... those aren't little kids playing. Their mommies—and especially their daddies—are in there with them, coplaying or play-by-play coaching. Few take it half-easy on the perimeter benches, as parents used to do, letting the kids figure things out for themselves.

Then there are the sanitizing gels, with which over a third of parents now send their kids to school, according to a recent survey. Presumably, parents now worry that school bathrooms are not good enough for their children.

Consider the teacher new to an upscale suburban town. Shuffling through the sheaf of reports certifying the educational "accommodations" he was required to make for many of his history students, he was struck by the exhaustive, well-written—and obviously costly—one on behalf of a girl who was already proving among the most competent of his ninth-graders. "She's somewhat neurotic," he confides, "but she is bright, organized and conscientious—the type who'd get to school to turn in a paper on time, even if she were dying of stomach flu." He finally found the disability he was to make allowances for: difficulty with Gestalt thinking. The 13-year-old "couldn't see the big picture." That cleverly devised defect (what 13-year-old can construct the big picture?) would allow her to take all her tests untimed, especially the big one at the end of the rainbow, the college-worthy SAT

[Sam Cree]

It takes a village

[Quark606]

Here, here.

[gondramB]

I've also noticed parents standing at the school bus stop with kids - I would have died of shame if I couldn't stand by myself in first grade - now I see fifth graders with their parents....

[tbird5]

Every new generation is screwed up, or so the magazines, shrinks, educators and liberals would like us to believe. Brings in new money for pet causes.

[Freedom4US]

I was astonished, sort of, to see toddlers walking to school, (pre-school?) alone, for blocks in downtown Seoul, South Korea. They smoke in elevators there too.

[Freedom4US]

Not the toddlers... *thwap*

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Our oldest will be 23 in November; our youngest just turned nine. One example of the 'wimpifying' of this younger generation...our little guy gets a trophy just for showing up play soccer/baseball/basketball. Everyone gets the same trophy at the end of the season...whether they win or lose. His regular season of baseball is over and they are now playing tournament ball. One of the organizations had the coaches review the score book and select an MVP from each team at each game...several parents on my sons' team said they didn't like going to that tourny (and don't want to go back next year) because 'singling' kids out on ability makes others 'feel bad.' Unbelievable...but I can tell you how proud my son was when he got one (two innings pitched and five KOs)...he knew he did really well and deserved it. The PC rules don't fool the kids for long...

[SteveMcKing]

Nice to see this from Psychology Today, since the profession has been somewhat responsible for creating Wimp Nation in the first place. Perhaps they are waking up.

[calljack]

Every time somebody says it takes a village to raise a child, I say yea, OK, but it takes families to make a village.

[Calpernia]

When everyone is special, then no one is special.

[af_vet_rr]

Then there are the sanitizing gels, with which over a third of parents now send their kids to school, according to a recent survey. Presumably, parents now worry that school bathrooms are not good enough for their children.

These people would **** their pants if they saw some of the ponds my brothers and I swam in when we were kids. All three of us have never been all that sick - we rarely get the flu or a cold. Could be good genes, but we also shared a big bedroom when I was younger, and when one of us caught something (chicken pox for instance), nobody slept downstairs - my mother was very adamant about that, and we all usually got sick - she could have kept us seperated at the first sign of whatever, and it would have made her life easier (not to have three boys sick at the same time), but she said we'd appreciate it later on, and we did and do.

I see people literally sanitizing their tables at restaurants for these kids.

Oh well, what do you expect - where once we were a nation of pioneers, we are now a nation of settlers.

[Calpernia]

I would welcome the germs from any pond.

But, when you live in an illegal gateway community...and those kids don't get immunized....the gel comes along.

[308MBR]

It takes a village to raise an idiot.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

hey wait a minute you dont think child molesters dont watch the bus stops looking for the chance to snatch a child?where do you live? in a walgreens commercial?

[af_vet_rr]

I've also noticed parents standing at the school bus stop with kids - I would have died of shame if I couldn't stand by myself in first grade - now I see fifth graders with their parents....

When I was in the first grade, the shortcut for us to the bus stop (this was out in the boonies in central Texas) involved crossing two barbed wire fences and a fairly rickety bridge across a creek, and I see tons of parents waiting before school and after school to drop off or pick up theirs kids - I understand if there are special circumstances, but I have a feeling a lot of these older kids should be taking on more responsibility.

[gondramB]

>>hey wait a minute you dont think child molesters dont watch the bus stops looking for the chance to snatch a child?where do you live? in a walgreens commercial?<<

I know the risk is not zero but what percent of child molestation are at bus stops? Almost all of them are people that the kids know, not strangers.

Besides if they cant stand for 10 minutes at a bus stop then they probably don't get to play freely either - that makes for a totally changed experience being a child.

[HangnJudge]

These kids need to get out into the wild and
learn how to stune their very own beebers

[gcruse]

"Presumably, parents now worry that school bathrooms are not good enough for their children."

All I know is that in the years since I stopped being around kids, I haven't had a single illness.

[Calpernia]

Watch? Heck! We are so tuff where we live, we let the child molesters DRIVE the bus!

http://losangeles.fbi.gov/pressrel/2006/la072606.htm

Excerpt:

A website known as www.namgla.net was closed for business Tuesday by the FBI as part of its Innocent Images National Initiative targeting child pornography networks operating globally using the Internet.

(snip)

In addition, two subjects were arrested in connection with child pornography charges – Russell Christie III, age 48, a school bus driver residing in New Jersey; and Thomas Herman, age 65, a convicted sex offender in Washington State. This operation has also resulted in several investigations at the state level regarding alleged child sex abuse.

(snip)

Russell Christie III drove for First Student Bus Company that serviced my private school district.