.
Okay it’s 8:00 pm on Halloween and I haven’t had a single goblin or ghoul or witch or anything. I did see a cow at Bank & Somerset this morning, and a Tigger on my street while I was out running after work, but so far there have been no Trick-or-Treaters at my door.
What is WRONG with kids today? Have they forgotten how to have fun, or are they just not allowed to do anything anymore? God. I read the other day about a school that has outlawed the game of tag, because children could get hurt. And another school that does not allow running at recess, because children might trip and fall and get hurt. And another school that has banned Hide-and-Seek because children should be visible at all times.
Have all the parents and teachers forgotten their own childhoods? Children are supposed to fall down. They’re born short so they don’t have so far to fall, and they’ve got flexible bones so they’re less likely to break. Getting hurt is a normal, natural, everyday PART of childhood. You skin your knees, you stub your toes, you get slivers, you get the wind knocked out of you, you get bruises and goose-eggs and frostbite and poison ivy and sometimes you cry but usually you just dust yourself off and carry on because you’re a kid, and kids are tough!
We’re raising a generation of wimps. And when it’s their turn to be parents, they won’t have any idea what a normal childhood is like, so their children will be wimps too. I think we were the last generation – ever – to experience getting kicked out of the house in the morning and told not to come back until supper. We were the last generation to have unstructured, unsupervised, unmediated play time with other kids. We were the last generation expected to amuse ourselves without electronics. We were the last generation whose parents couldn’t imagine anybody wanting to kidnap us.
What kind of wine goes with Kit Kats and Twizzlers?
I think kids aren’t allowed to have fun. Every time there is an accident where a kid is killed you get a big movement to outlaw whatever it was that kid was doing, as if it was the activity that killed the kid. But sometimes people just die. Accidents happen and it’s part of life.
When I was a kid we used to go outside and play all day long unsupervised in dangerous situations such as vacant lots and creeks and streams. Plus we had dogs with us and the dogs ran free and we never ever picked up their poop.
Those were the days!
Red.
Another thing that contributes to lack of unstructured time and free play is schools’ fear of lawsuits. People seem to want to sue and blame someone else for whatever happens. It’s never the parents’ fault or the kid’s. It’s whatever or whoever is handy to blame. And too many people fail to take responsibility for their actions either.
But I’m a total non-Halloween person anyway, and it’s becoming stronger as I get older.
A Pinot Noir or a Merlot will complement chocolate quite nicely
And you are right about the kids….they are all turned into wimps with tons of allergies. They are no longer used to playing, falling, getting hurt, fighting, fending for your self or getting dirty. Makes me wonder how these kids kids are going to turn out.
I’m a red fan also, but a good Chardonnay might go well with kitkats.
As for the kids, they get their parents to drive them to the Glebe or New Edinburgh.
I think an in-your-face Shiraz works nicely with chocolate but I don’t like red licorice so I can’t help you there. Our house saw at least 60 kids come by (we kept track based on the number of chip bags we had originally) and I heard just down the street, they got over 100 kids. But there are lots of kids in the ‘hood and it consists of high density townhomes so it makes sense. I liked that the parents hung out on the street while the kids came up to the door, although the bigger kids were on their own.
I ended up with 8 teenagers (2 groups of 4) and they were all very greedy and grasping. They took half of my candy (I bought enough for about 80 kids!) before I got the bowl away from them. (Note to self: maybe you’re supposed to dole it out instead of passing the bowl.)
Even though we were never supervised as kids, and engaged in all kinds of dangerous activities in dangerous places, it’s amazing how many of us survived.
When was the last time you saw a kid climbing a tree? About 35 years ago, right?
Back when I had a climbable cherry tree (1993 to 2000), I used to see all kinds of kids climbing it.
At first I would yell, “Hey you kids, get out of that cherry tree,”
But eventually I realized that they wouldn’t get the reference to the old Jello commercial and it really wouldn’t be good if I scared a kid so badly that they fell and hurt themself.
So instead, I’d go outside and in a calm voice say, “you have to come down from there.”
I would point out that their shoes damaged the bark, and if true, that the cherries weren’t yet ripe.
I was pretty sure I’d struck a non-scary tone when one eight or nine-year-old asked me how much I’d paid for my house and when I told him to guess, he got the price within $5000.
The difference is that you were protecting the tree from the children David, not the children from the tree.
I am often the recipient of nasty glares in playgrounds, etc because I am not afraid to let my kids push their physical limits. I don’t run over when they fall down to pick them up–they know that if they are really hurt, I will be there for them, but I think it is important to allow them the opportunity to (potentially) get hurt in the first place.
The playgrounds of my childhood are probably considered death traps nowadays, but a trip back to my childhood school this summer was an eyeopener. There’s not a lot of cash in place there for spiffy new “safe” playgrounds in the more rural schools. The old monkey bars were pulled down–they were in rough shape when I was playing on the 25 years ago–but the rest of the old equipment was still there. Anyone remember the “spiders” with the 4 curved ladders reaching up to the middle (about 10ft from the ground) with a fireman pole in the centre for sliding down?
Still there and guess what?
My kids love them.
We only had four or five T&T kids on our street, but we’re usually the only house giving treats. This year there were two others so I have more hope for next year.