Very much so - teeter-totters, merry-go-rounds, even swings and slides. Just a handful of years ago at my elementary school (while I was a student there), they took away all the playground equipment in the kindergarten/first grade area (too dangerous). Then they kept us all off the playground for about a month, so they could replace the oh-so-dangerous sand under the existing equipment with somehow less-dangerous wood chips. :dubious:
Also, I’m trying to teach myself Arabic in my spare time (hah). D’you all think I should explain to my roommate that if I go missing and/or the FBI confiscates my computer, don’t worry, I’m just…learning another language?
OK, helmets for toddlers on trikes is going too far. But I did have a friend who, when we were about ten, came off his bike and landed on the road head-first. He was pretty much unscathed. But his helmet was smashed to pieces which were scattered across the road. Excuse the melodrama, but if the helmet hadn’t been there, it’d have been his skull. I always wore a helmet after tha.
Don’t go lumping the time out in with all that other wussy shit. It’s a useful discipline tool.
If you’re hitting your kids to punish them, it’s because you’re a weak disciplinarian. It’s a bully tactic, the sort of thing that slack parents fall back on when they’ve blown off bad behavior so long that it’s gotten ingrained.
If you train 'em right, a sharp look is enough … .
I’ll second the more freedom thing. I know for a fact that for goodly portions of the summer and weekends when I was a kid, if my Mom was asked where I was, “Beats Me” would have been a legitmate response.
Ditto to that – based on the advice of some Dopers, I got my five-year-old on the “1-2-3 Magic” discipline system. While we don’t follow it as perfectly as we should, I can definitely get my son into line merely with the suggestion that he’ll get to a State 3 Time-Out if he doesn’t Get His Act Together And Behave Himself Toot Sweet.
No spanking, no (okay, a smidge) yelling, just a little counting.
I’m guessing that the removal of playground equipment has as much to do with fear of lawsuits as with fear of kiddies getting hurt. Not only are we big wussies, but if we do get hurt, we expect someone to pay us big bucks.
I got a kick out of this story, which was in the latest Reader’s Digest.
Some workers found a box on the loading dock. The only markings on the box were the words “Danger. Do Not Touch.” The proper authorities were contacted, and when the box was opened, it was found to contain signs that said “Danger. Do Not Touch.”
FWIW, helmets on tricycles is so that it becomes a habit while they’re young. If you don’t start em young on things like that, you’re FAR less likely to get them to adopt it later. On wheels? Wear a helmet. Period.
Same thing with table manners. My best friends have a 7yearold who eats like a retarded starving wolf child. Her parents just didn’t think they should confuse her with such social restrictions when she was just learning to eat. Suddenly, she’s seven, and no one ever thought to even tell her what table manners are. She eats with her hands, she eats from the serving dish–with her hands–she eats from others’ plates, she wipes her mouth on the table cloth, and on and on and on. It’s really appalling. But her parents never, ever react to any of it. She’s going to have a rude awakening at her prom, if you ask me. It won’t be pretty.
Anyway, my point is, table manners are just natural for me, because my mom hit us with Emily Post on the way out of the womb; for this kid, it’s gonna be like learning a new language. Same principle goes for helmets and seatbelts.
Eh, we have our two-year old wear a helmet for her tricycle. It’s not so much for safety (though it did save her in one particularly bad fall) as to get her used to using the things as a matter of habit. Better to instill it in her from the very beginning than to have fights about it later.
Didn’t read the whole thread, but I’m particularly irked by the warning labels you see on commercials
“Closed track, driven by a professional driver” is commonly seen in car commercials where the guy is… just… driving. :dubious:
Twenty feet high wooden and metal playgrounds being torn down, and replaced by two feet high plastic playgrounds made out of recycled plastic, with round corners and edges no less. Have you seen the crappy slides they have on today’s playgrounds? How could anyone possibly gain enough momentum on those things for them to have fun?
I don’t care what I have to do. When I have kids, they will be flying down towering metal slides that have been baking in the sun all day, and climbing miles into the sky on wooden ladders all while dreaming of flying pirate ships and playing Indians and vikings…after I explain to them there actually was a conflict between the two albeit.
This paranoa crap sickens me. Doesn’t anyone think anymore?
Who said anything about abuse? I just said if you have to resort to regularly spanking your kids you’re a lousy disciplinarian. Spanking is a crutch for pussies who are too weak to exercise real authority.
Go ahead and beat your kids all you want, tough guy. It sounds like that’s the only way you’ll ever get them to respect you.
