the overprotected kid...
 

doubt there will be many here who disagree:

The Overprotected Kid - The Atlantic

Yeah, I was always outside when I was a kid. I was always on a bike jumping ramps and riding in the dirt and on hills. When I was 11-13, I regularly played on railroad tracks that were near our home. I climbed to the tops of trees that were higher than our two story townhomes.

Things are definitely different these days. And this article explains that lack of personal responsibility is taught from an early age and started many years ago.

and in doing those acts, I did them too, you learned that your actions had consequences--
train is coming, don't move fast..... consequences
put your weight on a branch that is too small.......consequences
mock a peer that is bigger then you.......consequences
text in a movie theater in Florida......consequences

We are going in the wrong direction and unfortunately we will never get back to the good old days.

Yes, I played outside unsupervised and got hurt. Today's kids won't have that good learning experience.

We used to practice jumping over chain link fences with the prongs up so we could haul ass faster if the need arose.

The extended hood was our playground. Plenty of (literal) pain but we owned the world.

Moms had not a clue where we were and did not give it a second thought until dinner time.

Since having kids, I became part of the current problem. Must have been the razor blades in the Halloween apples that started this.

THIS! My folks are mortified at the schit we did when we were younger when the wine starts flowing at Thanksgiving!
I too am guilty of making sure my son would wear his helmet skateboarding...all the while showing him pix of the old man grinding coping in an empty pool in a bathing suit and Stan Smith tennis shoes. We made it to the other side...but I don't think Bryce has broken a bone yet(I'm no Johnco...but I'd broken 8-10 bones by his age). He say's he has a helmet for the terrain parks for snowboarding...but every pic I see, he's got a beanie on. I tell him don't F up...cuz I don't want to spend my golden years changing his colostomy bag from a wipeout.

Great article, thanks for posting it. I've shared it.
One thing especially stood out to me.

We've become a sterile, too-safe culture.

Great article, definitely gives me pause as a parent. I put a lot of importance on being independent and making decisions on your own, and I believe the article makes valid points. Though conversely, I don't think my kids could live that lifestyle if they tried. We live in the middle of a city, and school is 5 miles as is the closest friend. We try to let them be independent in that context, for instance my 10 year old loves going fishing alone in the neighborhood pond and my 3 year old spends hours playing in the backyard alone with the dog. We let them fall down, we let them make mistakes, we let them get hurt (within reason). But it's definitely different than how I grew up.

Our little cul-de-sac is going through another change. The second generation of kids is moving on. Next month we will lose a family of four to a new home. It was amazing that all of the kids seemed to be outside all of the time, just having fun. Now we are down from 12 kids to just 2 little boys. I am sure there will be another generation, but for now, all of us "old timers" have noticed and commented how quiet our neighborhood has become and how we miss the buzz of a dozen little ones playing. ( I cannot tell you how many kids have been under my lift wondering about this thing or that on the bottom of the 911.)

Oh... you had it easy, when I was a kid we had to out run the pterodactyls and tyrannosaurs on the way to school... and when the volcano erupted we had to walk five miles across HOT MOLTEN LAVA to get home... but you tell the kids today that, they won't believe you.

[My twist on the "walking five miles through the snow uphill to school" story.]

But yeah, before I could drive mom would drop me and my buddies off at the beach in the morning and pick us up "when the sun went down."

Same with movie theaters, drop us off and "call me when you are done (here's a dime)."

Summer vacation with grandparents in Kansas... firecrackers, bottle rockets, M-80's.

Throwing rocks at each other... shooting at each other with BB guns...

And I turned out all right... THE BUFFALO! LOOK OUT FOR THE BUFFALO!!!!

Uphill both ways.

^^^ This. Not everything is all paddded edges, germ free, cattywampus, and certified safe for children.

Remember how much fun we had around constructions sites? We ran with scissors, we played dodge ball with baseballs, we had never heard of bicycle helmets. I still have a scar from the shrapnel I took when we found some .308 ammo and put a round on top of a bb gun and hit it. Truly a better, vanished time.

Rick,

Construction sites were the best. Got to ride on the armrest of a bulldozer and knock over a tree!

10 or 11 years old.

No seatbelt or airbag.

Very cool guy at the controls. Still like the smell of fresh dirt and kerosene.

Dirt clod fights at the construction site. A fond, yet painful memory.

Ah yes...dirt bombs.

My dad owned a small road construction business. It was located about a half mile from our house across a crop field and separated from the field by a mature line of cottonwood trees. Those trees made for a great playground supplemented by supplies from the business. We would watch the machine repairs in the shop (color vision problems were not helped by watching the arc welder) and the shop office had an AWESOME calendar depicting female anatomy!!! No month was safe when we were around.

My 2 cents on this;
1. The comment on kids growing up to fast or being to mature earlier....I see kids that act more mature in every day situations, but from my perspective they are still very immature emotionally. They very much lack skills that are developed during the maturing process. Now I must say that kids education is much more accelerated today and that may be a large contributing factor to this perception that kids are growing up faster.

2. Having 4 boys oldest 23 youngest 16, we had our share of ER visits. I think a lot of what young parents deal with today is more than just over protection or helicopter parenting. 2014 is a very different time that the mid 70's. The number of crazies out there that are preying on children compared to earlier days is exponentially higher. What toys were popular back then are very different that of-today and this has helped in keeping kids inside instead of playing outside. At least we still have organized sports programs.

My wife and I have already decided that when the grand kids come to play it will be outside play. But we will facilitate that to make it appealing to them. Living on 10 acres in the country with a pond and a pool. There will be an abundance of outside things to do that will make them want to be outside. Go Carts, 4 wheelers, dirt piles, sand boxes, animals,etc....You can't tell a child to go out an play when their friends aren't outside for them to play with and the majority of their toys are "screen time" based. In my opinion these types of toys may be teaching some skills but they are actually robbing kids of developing skills such as problem solving, creativity, conflict resolution.

jumping 4-5 of your friends on your BMX bike after watching Evil Kinevel. I used to do vert without a helmet. Not very good, but I did it.

Same with skateboards.

I keep saying that if the constitution were rewritten today it would only have two amendments


First amendment: You can't tell me what to do!
Second amendment: Well, it was not my fault!