Tell Us Something We Don't Know!

[Sukerkin]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11204142


It irritates me a little to see that it takes a 'study' by a reputable body before something becomes 'real'. Better still, they come up with a pseudo-medical syndrome-type name for it that makes it sound like a disease that needs government aid to treat!

We've talked on here before now about how the Nannie State Cotton-Woolism Effect is corroding the sense of adventure and self-reliance amongst the young generations. When I was a kid, I was never in our house unless it was chucking it down with rain ... and usually not even then :lol:.

 

[Tez3]

It's partly different governments fault in that they have reduced the places children can play. Playing fields were built on, tower blocks built making it impossible for children to play out within parents 'shouting' distance, councils increasingly leaving childrens play areas to decline etc. Fears of children being snatched off the street add to parents worries as well as increasing motor traffic on our roads.

I think though that the problem has been exaggerated and funnily enough it's the better off parents whose children are suffering from the over parenting, working class kids are out just as much as they ever were, perhaps too much in some places where they have formed gangs and their idea of recreation is terrorising neighbours and wrecking things.

I have to say I doubt I would let my children out to play in an inner city area, I would send them off to Scouts/Guides etc to find their adventures.

 

[Sukerkin]

Fair points there, Tez.

I have to admit that my childhood was not spent in an urban area, so my 'prejudices' are founded upon growing up in a small market town.

 

[MA-Caver]

I agree with Tez's points as well and may just as add-in the advent of computerized games and other electronic gizmos that can be found within a child's reach. A lot more fun (for kids these days) to sit in front of the tube and play this real cool shoot-em up, driving, adventure or whatever game they're on to and be connected to their friends who don't even have to leave their houses to do so.
Concerned parents (sometimes that's a laugh) can easily know where their kid is at by listening for the faint explosions or tinny music coming from the tv, punctuated by occasional "Awww crap!", "Yeah! that got 'im!", "That was coool!".... and the kids are alright.

Ok they got a study out... now are they going to DO anything about it.
I understand Sukerkin's frustration with stuff like these... it's like looking a deep crack in a bridge support, pointing to it and saying, "someday that's going to cause a problem".

Creating more outdoorsy type programs is fine... provided they can do the following:
Keep it far more interesting than the latest game on the market.
Screen the crap out of the adult(s) who are in the program that will come in contact with the children so that the kids will get a Nature education not a sexualized one.
Make it safe enough out there so that the kids won't get hurt. Lord knows parents have watched enough Bear Gryllis and Survivorman to understand the world out there is a daaaangerous place. <sarcasm>

Another thing is where parents have GOT to let kids be kids. Getting dirty, touching snakes and spiders and other icky crawlies. Allowing them to get scared and just comfort them when they wake up from a nightmare and kiss their heads saying it's going to be alright... instead of holding the child tightly to their bosum with one hand and calling their attorney with the other to set up a litigation against the school for creating a traumatic experience for their child when a snake/frog/whatever jumped out of a box and ran around the floor making everyone scream and jump.

Stop coddling kids dammit and punch a hole in their consoles and kick 'em out the door telling them don't come back in until it's just before dark.

 

[girlbug2]

A few years ago I read a book that addressed these very concerns:

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Wo...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283877777&sr=1-1

Yes it's definitely been more of a problem with each passing year.

I remember wandering around the foothills of the Rockies in the 80s, sometimes accompanied by my younger sister or my cat (from our back yard lot, which backed up to the undeveloped wilderness). It was healthy and it taught me a lot about nature. Nowadays if that happens, the parents would be reported to Child Services for neglect. So perhaps parents today can't be blamed as much as the paranoid standards of the day which decreee that children must never have any opportunity to get hurt, ever.

 

[MA-Caver]

That's why I love cavers... I mean how many parents wouldn't freak out when they saw their precious only daughter looking like THIS!?? :uhyeah:

 

[Nomad]

That's why I love cavers... I mean how many parents wouldn't freak out when they saw their precious only daughter looking like THIS!?? :uhyeah:

And yet, the smile on her face speaks volumes! Love it.