Kids don't play in the snow anymore?

Kids don't play in the snow anymore?

Back in my days when it snowed, all the kids used to get excited and run outside to play in the snow.

Today and almost every time it snows around here, I do not see a single kid playing in the snow.

Actually I rarely see any kids playing outside any time of year.

It's pretty strange.

All the way up to my early teens, we used to think of all sorts of ways to play in the snow.. some of my fondest memories.

My kids do. So do I. Looking forward to the storm coming tonight!

In Pennsylvania when it was just with or without the snow my friends and I would go play ice hockey or do some 4 wheelers I’m 33 # man we used to ice boxing and the neighbors would call the police cause friends and I would strap on gloves and fight each other on the ice. We all wanted to be like Gretzky

a reply to: nOraKat

The kids around here do...

Granted it's not like it was when I was a kid in the 70's and 80's...There was a street that basically was shut down (unofficially) that all the kids in the neighborhood (and some from beyond) would sled down. Literally there could be 50-80 kids and maybe 5 or 10 parents on the hill. Now all the streets are plowed in less than a day and the kids have to make do with the plastic toboggans. It's not the same, that's for sure.

a reply to: nOraKat

Because they play to much "fork knife"....

Sample bias, I think.

a reply to: nOraKat

Yeah, 'snow days' were awesome. You couldn't keep me inside. Mom would have to drag me in by my ear to get me to come inside. We'd build snow forts in the snow plow piles, and have snow wars, play hockey on homemade ice rinks in our yard.

The funnest thing though was to go what we called "Traying". There was this big ski area and we were all the local kid-terrorists. We'd go to the ski area right as they were about to close down for the night (the lifts had already closed, but the cafeteria / bar was still open) and we'd steal some cafeteria trays (the serving trays were the best). Then we'd wait for it to get dark. While we were waiting we'd wax the bottoms of the trays with ski wax. These were the old hard plastic trays (they were actually made out of a material called 'Bakelite' I would learn later), not the soft plastic ones like today. Anyway, we'd wax these bad-boys up real good using an old iron to melt the wax. And when it got dark we'd hike up the mountain and slide down on those waxed up trays.

It was a blast! You had very little control of where you went so every ride was wild and different. Sometimes you'd run up behind someone who just got on their tray, and spin it, so they'd go shooting down the hill while spinning. There were lots of spectacular high speed crashes. (one guy even crashed through a snow fence once and flew off the roof of a building built into the side of the hill, but that's another thread. He was fine.)

After a while our parents were even okay with it, because at least they always knew where they could find us.

When we were done, we'd scrape the wax off and leave the trays out in front of the cafeteria. They never seemed to mind too much...but they never caught us either.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I grew up in the mountains of Virginia and had one of the first snow boards called a snurfer. It wasn't really even a snow board it was the predecessor to snow boards.

It was made by Brunswick and had a long rope coming off the nose end you would hold onto. You didn't lock your feet into it or anything like that, just had rubber pads to stand on.

We had some wicked wrecks on that thing. Looking back I am surprised no one got hurt bad. I think it was taken of the market because it was so dangerous.

a reply to: nOraKat


Yes they do. There were some kids playing in the snow down the street, they stopped though after I drove through a slush puddle and soaked them.

originally posted by: nOraKat
Kids don't play in the snow anymore?

Huh?

Saw this in the news today. www.msn.com...

a reply to: nOraKat

I saw some kids sledding down a hill on those disk things. The lines were outrageous.

a reply to: nOraKat

When I was a kid the snow was still pretty clean.We made snow
forts,snowmen,threw snowballs and ate snow ice-cream.
Kids today get the police called on their parents if they're playing
in their own back yard.

When I was a kid we used to play in this big bank of yellow snow that was beside a construction site. Besides the pink eye, it was a great time.

Kids these days don't know what they're missing.

a reply to: nOraKat

kids in montana do in often dangerious and interesting ways , i saw 4 kids on what looked like sleds or kneeboards being pulled behind an atv while i was snow plowing the other day ,not my jam but they looked like they were having an amazing time. we got an ice skating rink on a local pond that freezes so i think kids still play in the cold. didnt see too many out today but its supposed to be neg 22 by night fall if you count windchill in my area so they may not be out tonight

it's because random strangers call the cops if kids play outside unattended. Parents are supposed to helicopter their children like a damn prison warden. Letting them build a snowman in the yard is neglect.

Plus, screen time.

That's why I live in the country.

a reply to: nOraKat

It seems like kids don't play much outdoors anymore period. I look back during the days when I was a kid and remember winters building snowmen, tunnels under the snow and lying down and making angels in the snow. We used to build snow forts, have snowball fights and go sled riding. You hardly see kids playing outside anymore because they would rather be playing video games!

It's unfortunate but video games are affecting the health of many children. They're not as physically active as the older generations. If I could give a recommendation to any new parents out there, I would definitely make sure you get your kids involved in organized sports at the earliest possible age.

Well, if there's any hope...we live way out in the country, and kids DO play out in the snow here. In fact, when it snows, the kids all show up and go sledding on the freeway ramp embankments. Heck, I never even did that!

So, there is hope!

Maybe not in yours, but they sure do in my neighborhood. Granted, most of the parents stick to a "you don't get to leave the street in case you get hurt and nobody knows" rule (me, too, weather conditions like ice depending)

My kids are outside as often as possible in the winter unless we have to mind frostbite conditions. In those cases, they get anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to play outside before it's time to come back in, period. They don't pay enough attention to know when they've gone numb somewhere, so that rule is inflexible until they get with it & wise up.

They spent this afternoon outside playing with one of their friends from up the street. A few weeks ago, and it was a snowball war across 2 streets' worth of kids. They partially constructed 2 snow forts in the back yard to lob snowballs at each other & whichever friend had permission to come over. Part of that's now melted, the remaining blobs were moved as best possible & reshaped into a small sledding hill.

Ultimately, families in my neighborhood consist of what people today call "free-range" oriented parents. Back in our day, we called it "normal unsupervised play". Evidently your neighborhood took a different path.