Spare the Massive Blunt Trauma, spoil the child.

I know a lot of people who need to read this article.
I can't even imagine how much damage it must do to deny your child the most essential freedoms of childhood.

I wish they'd hover over them a little more when they're kicking the gotdamn back of my seat and screaming when I have to take a 3+ hour domestic flight.

1) Had a brother throw a dart at me that stuck in my cheek (upper not lower)

2) Broke an arm at 8 falling off a 15' wall.

3) Almost cut off my thumb on a glass bottle, also at 8.

4) Broke a collar bone falling out of a bunkbed at 5.

This is only a partial listing for me and I was only one of four kids.

The entire list is long and gory.

"Precious snowflake" needs to be replaced with a little dose of
Dawinism. The kids will be better for it.

Common sense is not so common anymore.

17 per cent [of all children] have been told they cannot take part in games of tag or chase.

Man, that's just wrong.

Yes, but deep down the parents are laughing while their children inconvenience you in ways that they don't have the guts to.

My wife and I have this conflict all the time. it's not an argument; it's just a difference of opinions. she's constantly watching her trip over curbs and shiat; I don't even wipe off her skinned knees.

I say it makes her tougher, and braver. I tell my wife I don't let her play with knives and shiat.

PS WTF is "Conkers"?

I predict that this will be a pretty long thread.

theorellior: I predict that this will be a pretty long thread.

I predict it will be full of people who don't know shiat about kids or parenting giving advice on both.

Richard Pye: Common sense is not so common anymore.

True. Ask a lot of today's *cough*fundie redneck moran*cough* parents to stop coddling their kids and they'll treat 'em worse than the farking dog. Because Dr. Dobson says to, that's why.

nevermind. I figured it out.

Molavian: I predict it will be full of people who don't know shiat about kids or parenting giving advice on both.

People mouthing off on subjects they have absolutely no knowledge about is Fark. There is nothing else.

"it was becoming a 'social norm' for younger children to be allowed out only when accompanied by an adult."

I have been guilty of that with my 5 year old. I am not even sure why I do it except to say that it just seems to be a whole lot more scary out there than it was 30 years ago when I was his age. The world is a different place. I don't think you can understand the worry and concern until you are a parent.

In consession, I will let my 1 year old daughter drink whiskey and operate heavy machinery any time she wants. All she has to do is ask. I am willing to take that risk.

Molavian: theorellior: I predict that this will be a pretty long thread.

I predict it will be full of people who don't know shiat about kids or parenting giving advice on both.

The irony is that many of the people who don't know shiat and will be giving the advice might be parents, too. That's kinda how the whole snowflake thing works. Parents who don't know how to parent, so just spoil instead.

Ever heard that term, "You live, you learn"? Such is the case here. You don't live, you certainly don't learn, and that could seriously fark you up.

/My two cents, have them

My in-laws are staying with us this weekend. A little while ago we were going somewhere when their snowflake started throwing a tantrum in the back seat.

Daddy wanted to return to the house. Mommy tried to sweet talk the snowflake.

I turned around and asked the kid point blank if he thought it was nice being a jerk and acting mean to everybody and spoiling everyones good time.

He wimpered..."no". Then I told him if he didn't quit being a jerk I was going to take him to the woods and leave him. He laughed, he had no idea how close to being serious I was.

Molavian: theorellior: I predict that this will be a pretty long thread.I predict it will be full of people who don't know shiat about kids or parenting giving advice on both.

As long as they provide good recipes for them, what does it matter?

I'm going to print off the article and take it to work

/nanny for 2 little "snowflakes"

I never ever thought I'd be reading a news article about allowing kids to play and climb trees. My, how far we've come.

/get offa my lawn and climb someone else's tree

Molavian: theorellior: I predict that this will be a pretty long thread.

I predict it will be full of people who don't know shiat about kids or parenting giving advice on both.

I predict you're both going to be right...

thalidomide new and improved:
PS WTF is "Conkers"?

I second that question. WTF is "Conkers"?

Yep, kids today are being raised to be too soft. Bring back theplaygrounds we grew up with!

My wife and I got very involved over the years in school activities, volunteering for committees, serving on the PTA (my wife was president of HS PTA for one year), running Girl Scout events, etc.

It sickens me the number of parents who volunteered for a trip, a committee, a leadership position, just to push some agenda item for their child. I went on class trips as a chaperone, but I always was with kids who weren't my own (I was often in demand as they needed fathers to come along to escort the boys into the rest rooms). Some parents were shut-out of a trip because they volunteered too late (or only teachers were going), and they would pull their child from the trip.

My daughters are 18 and 15 (my older daughter is starting college in three weeks) and we've managed to find a balanced parenting style. I'm truly concerned about some of my daughter's classmates heading off into the world for the first time this fall.

My parents beat me daily as I ran to school on broken glass carrying scissors.

rickbunker: thalidomide new and improved:
PS WTF is "Conkers"?

I second that question. WTF is "Conkers"?

thalidomide new and improved: PS WTF is "Conkers"?

It's a UK/British game where two people tie a string to a horse chestnut, and then take turns smashing their "conker" into their opponent's, in the hope of smashing theirs before yours breaks. It sounds a bit silly, but it is a children's game.

rickbunker: thalidomide new and improved:
PS WTF is "Conkers"?

I second that question. WTF is "Conkers"?


any more questions children?

camelclub: My in-laws are staying with us this weekend. A little while ago we were going somewhere when their snowflake started throwing a tantrum in the back seat.

Daddy wanted to return to the house. Mommy tried to sweet talk the snowflake.

I turned around and asked the kid point blank if he thought it was nice being a jerk and acting mean to everybody and spoiling everyones good time.

He wimpered..."no". Then I told him if he didn't quit being a jerk I was going to take him to the woods and leave him. He laughed, he had no idea how close to being serious I was.

Your in-laws have a precious little snowflake? For God's sake, how old were they when they had it?

You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else.

Cool, then my psycho appoach to parenting has a chance.

My new thing is to say this when my kids don't hear me "last time I'm going to tell you to -----, next time crazy daddy comes out". and sometimes crazy daddy has to mediate the issue in his crazy way. I've become my dad.

camelclub don't give yourself too much credit, kids always listen better to people who aren't their parents.

The "study" seems to be a survey with no measurable conclusions. These retards only wish they playing in the big leagues with the rest of the pseudoscience bullshiatters.

It's difficult to let your kid run knowing eventually he'll fall and hurt himself. You imagine it's going to be a snapped neck when in all likelihood it'll be skinned knees.

However, it's your responsibility to raise a kid who will become a self-sufficient adult, so you have to let the kid run knowing injury is inevitable.

I refuse to even comfort my kid beyond a quick 'are you OK?' when he hurts himself unless and until I know he's really hurt. Otherwise, he comes to expect a completely safe world where mommy and daddy will come and fix everything. It's happened a couple of times when I let his mother get to mothery... and we get a couple of weeks of whiny little kid.

/No, I don't tell him to pick up his severed limb and walk it off.

I fell off a skidoo once and nailed my shin on a tree... it left an awesome bruise.

/forts
//pellet guns
///bikes
////fun

Foxxinnia: 17 per cent [of all children] have been told they cannot take part in games of tag or chase.

Man, that's just wrong.

To be fair, it was rocket tag and chase the Chevy.

conkers (new window)

danar75: Yep, kids today are being raised to be too soft. Bring back theplaygrounds we grew up with!

Damn straight. I'm sick of these colorful, cornerless, plastic monstrosities.

Plastic slides, in particular, f*cking suck.

thalassatx: camelclub: My in-laws are staying with us....

Your in-laws have a precious little snowflake? For God's sake, how old were they when they had it?

Sister-in-law...

itdood:

camelclub don't give yourself too much credit, kids always listen better to people who aren't their parents.

Actually I was (insufficiently) complaining about their lack of firmness with the snowflake...they probably thought I was being too harsh.

itdood: is to say this when my kids don't hear me "last time I'm going to tell you to -----, next time crazy daddy comes out".

HA! Just today, I introduced my boy to 'Zombie Dad'. I told him I was going to eat his belly. (This involved tickling and belly farts, not cannibalism!!!)

Now, when he's misbehaving I have started to threaten him with Zombie Dad.

/I was getting bored of being a plain old 'Tickle Monster'.

3 kids, approximately 9 trips to emerg/year . . . are we doing it right?

We live in a family-friendly sub-division with several parks and natural areas. We frequently send them OUT to play--specifying that they can't come back in the house for a couple hours. Hockey, soccer, swimming, gymnastics, and skiing use of some of their energy but there's still a ton left. Stuff that is outright dangerous like sliding down the garage roof, "parachuting" off the park's highest play-structure, climbing street lamps surrounded by concrete, skating unsupervised on the lake in spring etc. have been banned but they have to go out and play and discover the world so that they can learn and so that our house can remain standing.

And the kids in the study replied, "what the hell is a tree?"

I wake up my kids with a slap in the face and put them to sleep with a tire iron. And by God they appreciate it.

On a related note, aren't there studies proving that if you try to keep your kid in a hermetically sealed uber-clean environment, they usually end up prone to disease and allergies later on in life?

I had a buddy who's parents were clean freaks. He was always sick and has bad allergies.

/dirty smelly kids and anecdotal evidence ftw

Ni!: I wake up my kids with a slap in the face and put them to sleep with a tire iron. And by God they appreciate it.

Bah. They've got it easy. I beat my kid to sleep with a spiked club, and wake him up by stabbing him with a sword.

skippytheferret: I have been guilty of that with my 5 year old. I am not even sure why I do it except to say that it just seems to be a whole lot more scary out there than it was 30 years ago when I was his age. The world is a different place. I don't think you can understand the worry and concern until you are a parent.

Nope. It's less scary. The local news is just making you scared. Every category of crime against children is more rare today (except those where the threshold for it being a "crime" has been lowered [e.g. spanking hard]). There really is no excuse.

/Father of 7yo.
//He can't cross the busy streets til he's 8, but most anything else is ok.
///Lawn darts FTW!

camelclub:
Actually I was (insufficiently) complaining about their lack of firmness with the snowflake...they probably thought I was being too harsh.

Ya think? If any in-law of mine acted like that, "firm" would be understating how I would deal with it.

sokolnikov: conkers (new window)



Conky?

Conkers sounds very dangerous and scary. British children would be better off playing with SNL's "bag o' glass".

Read Kage Baker's "The Company" series (the last couple of books) to see where this is going. Good read anyway.

Raised our son not making a big deal about any bumps, bangs, stranger abductions etc. He's 24 now and a commercial fisherman, fearless, but smart.

/just saying