Kids don't play in the snow anymore?

a reply to: Nyiah

True.

That's kind of sad to me.

We had so much autonomy when we were kids, and now it's so different. But you know, it's not that different now. It's not any more dangerous. It's "social media", that's what's dangerous. I never wore a helmet riding my bike. I never wore a helmet skiing. Now...if your kid doesn't wear a helmet....and a flak jacket...you're an idiot.

That's sad. AND....that's what's different.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Nyiah

True.

That's kind of sad to me.

We had so much autonomy when we were kids, and now it's so different. But you know, it's not that different now. It's not any more dangerous. It's "social media", that's what's dangerous. I never wore a helmet riding my bike. I never wore a helmet skiing. Now...if your kid doesn't wear a helmet....and a flak jacket...you're an idiot.

That's sad. AND....that's what's different.

And to a degree, I'm pretty sure it's regional, at least a Deep South V Northerners stark contrast. Kids outside playing all day unsupervised isn't strictly limited to my neighborhood, I see a lot of them doing it all over the area. I'd never see kids outside in such numbers, and never without parents, back in FL.
Something changed between when I was a kid and when I had kids down there, that didn't translate so emphatically up north. I'm just not sure exactly what, aside from the high rate of CPS-obsessed tattletales down there.

I wish we could post real polls, not just "thread polls". I'm honestly willing to bet the south is much more helicopter-y than the north is.

Ours does. He would even more if the rest of the kids would play too. The ones on one side will when it's not too cold. Today will be horrifically cold, so he'll go outside while husband shovels but not much more.

See most of the kids in our neighborhood have coats, but they lack hats, gloves, scarves, and forget about snow pants. Ours has all of that, so he can stay pretty toasty for a good length of time.

Now when we had a heavy, wet snow earlier this year, it was ideal; temps stayed right around 30. All the kids were out and out for a good length of time. Ours was living it up. We have some good hills in the neighborhood, so there was disc sledding galore.

originally posted by: Brotherman
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

You all wanted to be like Gretzky?

So your friends would strap gloves on for the fight and then you would take turns running away?

Well, I think I'm gonna' have to go out and 'play' in the snow today!! All 20" of it that we got last night.

I wonder if I'll have enough gas for the snowblower? Probably going to have to go dig out the road too. Man, we got dumped on!!

a reply to: nOraKat


I dunno dude. Not sure why you think this. Here in Wisconsin the kids play outside at school unless it's below zero. As for at home, that's individual family stuff. My kid plays outside when he feels like it. But most of the time he likes playing inside. Either is fine with me so long as he's entertained and still being well socialized.

When we were kids we didn't have even a percent of the the amazing things kids today can play on or with. So yeah we spent more time outside because there was literally nothing to do inside. Things change I guess.

a reply to: WeRpeons
I don’t know if it’s just the video games.

I think there is more to it.

For one thing, it seems like parents are more overprotective; not letting kids go out and wander about. That’s the main thing. Like in the Little Rascals, kids were allowed to go out and play back when.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It’s true I live near the city.

They don't around here because we don't get it as much and when we get more than an inch the country acts like it is Armageddon.

a reply to: Nyiah
What’s helicoptery?

a reply to: nOraKat

I can agree with that too! How many times have parents become unruly and verbally attacked officials at sporting events because their child received a bad call. As a retired high school teacher and baseball coach, I really noticed how protective parents are with their children compared to parents in my generation.

Parents back in the day didn't question teachers, sports officials, or school officials. Kids were expected to respect teachers and those in authority. If kids got into trouble at school we would get punished worse at home! We wouldn't dare argue with a teacher and if we did get into trouble at school, we never wanted our parents to find out, lol.

The problem back then, there were "some" teachers that were really physically abusive to kids! I remember one day I forgot my gym shoes and my gym teacher made me run around the entire school in just my socks in 2 inches of snow!!
Most of my friends look back at it now and say those few teachers would have found themselves behind bars today!

Today, parents feel like if a teacher is scolding their child, telling them to put their cell phone away, or telling them to "get to work" they're "picking" on their child! Back in the day we had apathetic kids who didn't want to do their school work. Now teachers have to compete with cell phones, Facebook theatrics, along with increased apathy and verbal disrespect from students. Back in the day saying "F YOU" to a teacher would have the student immediately expelled, paddled or suspended for 10 days along with a good whoop'n from their parents! Kids today have no idea how easy they have it. Yet, I've never seen so many mean, rude and disrespectful kids in all my years of teaching.

Today our school officials have done everything to lower the bar to meet the apathetic nature of children today. For example, giving a 3 page math test in high school is now a no, no! The new rule, keep it to one page with a maximum of 2 or 3 calculations so children don't have to remember too many calculations on a test. It's stuff like this that alarmed me, because this doesn't prepare students for college or the real world of work. Our education ranking has fallen compared to other industrial nations because our "political officials" have made education a low priority and forced teachers to lower the bar.