In 1990, when i was an energetic young man, my fondest memories include romping about the woods with one or two of my closest friends. In those days, it seemed like we found a new secret fort weekly, climbed trees as high as the stars, and the days success could be measured by how many scrapes, bruises, and grass stains were on our person.
I recently went back to the woods where i grew up playing. Half of the trees were cut down to make way for new developments, but I still made an adventure out of it, finding the old places that had looked so big and new to me when i was young. As I was extricating myself from a particularly thorny path that branched off the main path, I noticed a man walking along the main path with his two young boys in tow. Now I'll admit that I must have looked a bit like a crazed man, what with bits of leaves in my hair, a couple of rips in my t-shirt form the thorns, etc. The man instinctively pushed his children behind me and edged around me almost furtively, never saying a word.
Strangely, the inner workings of my own mind got to thinking... did those kids have the opportunities that my friends and I had, to explore new and exciting things? Or were they, like far too many children nowadays, limited by the perceived "safety" issues drilled into far too many parents' heads nowadays.
An incident came to mind: I had been over my friend's house, sitting on the front porch and talking about who knows what, when we both noticed that the neighbor's little boy had started climbing a tree. He got about three feet off the ground, and fell off into the grass...
...I warn you, those with squeamish dispositions: this next part won't be pretty, discretion is advised...
... And with a sickening CRACK!...
Just kidding. But I bet at least some of you readers were thinking the worst.
The only crack came from the child's mother rushing out, screaming at the top of her lungs, with a bottle of peroxide in one hand and a small household medical kit in the other. "BOBBY (I use a generic name so as to preserve anonymity) OH MY GOD BOBBY YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH ARE YOU OKAY DID YOU BREAK YOU ARM OH JESUS! AND YOU TWO, TWO GROWN MEN LETTING A CHILD PUT HIS LIFE IN DANGER, SHAME ON YOU!"
Now I was perplexed. How can a three foot fall onto soft soil excite such comment?
I think Hara Estroff Marano said it the best in her book title, "A Nation of Wimps".
How can parents treat children like prized antique china, and expect them to learn practical lessons of any kind? What happens when they get to college, and god forbid make their own decisions? ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE.
I hope you, the intrepid reader, see the point I'm getting at. A child's education goes beyond learning their numbers, writing book reports, and learning how to use modern technology. Children need to earn character, by falling and scraping themselves, losing a competition, getting lost in a two square acre expanse of woodland.
My own next door neighbor, when posed the question of whether or not she smacks her children as a disciplinary tool, looked at me like I was a three headed baby eating monster and said incredulously "Do I look like an abusive parent?".
This is a message for all those who will listen. A kid is what you were however many years ago. They wont get more delicate with age (If anything, you might be contributing to their getting a little more padding if you know what I mean), and they have an innate need to explore their environment, experience a fall or two, and above all BE KIDS!
So don't leash your child to a computer or television. Don't teach them to be the oh so popular and disgusting "armchair warrior" (I hate that term). Let them teach themselves a few things. You might be surprised at how much innate wisdom they have in their little heads.

Very nice post! I never grew up with computers and the such, and I loved to explore the outdoors. We need to get our children out to do this more instead of in front of that idiot box ... or like I'm sitting in front of, a....eh.... computer!! It's a good learning tool but people need to get back to the real world, right around them! The best place to explore and prepare for something bad is right around you, that's your most familiar area and you can learn from it. It might not be too late to teach about the world before SitX and we go all crazy.

double post sorry

[edit on 31-3-2009 by Estharik]

Originally posted by Estharik
Very nice post! I never grew up with computers and the such, and I loved to explore the outdoors. We need to get our children out to do this more instead of in front of that idiot box ... or like I'm sitting in front of, a....eh.... computer!! It's a good learning tool but people need to get back to the real world, right around them! The best place to explore and prepare for something bad is right around you, that's your most familiar area and you can learn from it. It might not be too late to teach about the world before SitX and we go all crazy.

I'm just wondering because I'm curious. In a sitx situation, why do you believe everyone would go crazy? I could see areas where fighting occurs already, but not just random people.

The closest sitx ever experienced had to be Hiroshima and Nagasaki and you don't see people going crazy and killing eachother, or what about the Tsunami? I believe better of people and perhaps it is a sitx needed to level the egos.

LouisCK says it best...."Everything is amazing and nobody is happy"

Peace

I grew up playing tackle football with kids twice my size, and many years older, sans pads or "Safety Equipment". Mind you, this was only as far back as the latter half of the 1980's, and 1990's. I also played organized Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, and took part in Swimming, Martial-Arts, Ice Hockey, and all kinds of Ocean based Water sports, and Snow sports, and so on, and so forth. I played outdoors ALL day long, and I camped, hiked, played every kind of pick-up sport possible, and essentially I had a great time, combined with a lot of real world experiences to build my life upon.

Lol I remember during the Blizzards of 1993 and 1996 we all built a HUGE Bobsled track on the hilltop nearby. It even had a launching mound, and it was quite elaborate I must say. We used to sled all day, everyday when we had snow, and we only came in the house to get dry gloves, and we would be right back out the door in a flurry of boot stomps.

Recently, I noticed how even with more kids in my neighborhood, I never see them organizing the "Capture The Flag" games at night in the Summertime, which we used to do, or ride their bikes, shoot baskets in their driveways, or take part in nearly a fraction of the activity which we did. It actually depresses ME! I love hearing the sounds of kids outdoors having a great time, because it reminds me of my own childhood. When I rarely witness these kids even leaving their front doors however, I feel like this place is a real Ghost Town.