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Comments:
DaveD - 2004-06-05 09:23:01 I wish I'd worn one as a kid. I had a bike accident when I was about 11 and had to have my eyelid stitched back on. Haven't been on a bike since.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-05 12:54:29 Of course I am sorry to hear about Hillary's grisly accident, and I recognize that such accidents do happen, helmet or no. I hope it healed without a scar. But I do think that such incidents are the exception. I agree with Dave D. When I was a tad, we had a cinder playground at my elementary school in New Haven, MI--just cinders--and no woodchips. But marbles were the big thing then, so we played marbles instead of risking our lives on the rudimentary playground equipment. When I was 10, I had a treehouse. I built a woven rope platform about 40 feet up in a big black oak and climbed a rope up there. I loved it, although of course it was completely dangerous. I spent lots of time up there, reading and lounging on the rope platform that swayed a bit as the trees moved in the wind. I dunno--I think modern kids' lives are too circumscribed in sterile subdivisions. I think dreaming on a rope platform when I was a kid helped give some kind of space to my soul if you will. Watching the clouds, listening to the wind, looking at the leaves...it was heaven up there. Although childless, I do think kids should have the freedom to explore such spaces, danger notwithstanding. Such a refuge was a paradise for me as a kid.* * * * * * * * * * * * DaveD - 2004-06-05 13:17:07 Hyperbole aside, that was the point I was making- Kids Bounce. I had a few concussions and broken bones before it dawned on me that performing stupid bike stunts might be deleterious to my well-being. The prevalence of helmets, to me, is a symptom of a deeper problem of how kids lives are so regimented by over-worrying and protective parents. If you take a drive thru the 'burbs, you notice something very strange: there's no children playing in the streets! When I was a kid, my parents couldn't get me out of the house fast enough. Why not suit the kids up in full Kevlar body armor if they're so afraid of their kids getting hurt? * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-05 13:29:57 I agree with DaveD--I don't see kids playing in the streets anymore either, and I do think kids' playing is too regimented, without the freedom to explore and the opportunity to learn from mistakes. Like I said, I don't have kids, but was heartened by a recent National Geographic article about a South Dakotan family raising kids on a farm without TV, with the chance for the kids to make their own amusements. That seems a whole lot more wholesome and healthy to me than the situation with my troubled ex-stepson who was umbilically connected to his idiotic Gameboy.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-05 13:34:14 Said ex-stepson got a huge kick out of chopping wood with me, his first experience doing so, and carving a pumpkin--the first time he'd done so, if you can believe that. Kids should have the chance of playing in nature, instead of just upping their score on the latest video game. OK, off the soapbox now.* * * * * * * * * * * * Murph - 2004-06-05 14:56:45 I wasn't allowed to play in the street as a kid--but then, I grew up on a paved-but-low-traffic country road where idiots drag-raced over the blind hill near our driveway, so I think that's fair. Instead, I spent most of my time traipsing through the woods and fields, falling out of trees, falling into ponds and ravines, and cutting myself open on various thorned plants and old barbed wire. During deer season, my movement was a little curtailed, but otherwise I did a whole lot of bouncing and feel myself to be the better for it. No tv save sesame street (and, later, Dr. Who and The Prisoner), no video games (except SimCity, go figure), lots of reading, traveling, and wandering--I'm fairly pleased with my parents' parenting.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-05 20:20:39 Thank you Murph...my sis and I did a good deal of bouncing too. We lived on 2 acres when we were little--2 acres that seemed like infinity to wee ones. We used to pack a backpack with a sandwich, water, and a notebook and go on "nature walks" in the woods behind our lot. Lolling in the hawkweed, poking around in the woods behind our lot...it was fairly idyllic on retrospect. We also didn't have much TV save for Sesame St. I'm also very pleased with my parents' parenting...they let us kids find the bridge to Terabithia.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2004-06-07 12:49:13 When I was a kid, my mother never let us play inside when the weather was nice. "Go outside, it's beautiful out there!" she'd say. We would then proceed (admittedly at times a little unhappily, since at times we'd have rather stayed in and watched Love Boat reruns) to disappear for the entire day until dinner time. We'd go all over the neighborhood and pick up various kids along the way. Usually we played hide and seek or sardines or found someone elses' den to watch Love Boat reruns in. My mom never worried about us -- she just rung a bell when she wanted us in for dinner. If we were going to be out of earshot by late afternoon we had to call her and tell her where we were (because we wouldn't hear the bell) and generally speaking we always had to be in before dark in the colder months (as early as 4:00). In the summer we'd go back outside after dinner and play dodgeball and other games on the road with neighborhood kids. It's so weird now to hang out with people who are parents. Their kids rarely hang out without them when the parents are home from work. They don't go running around the neighborhood, but have scheduled visits with other kids. It's all so much more structured and formal and the parents are so obsessed with spending time with their kids. It's soooo different from the way I grew up. It'll be interesting to see if this generation is better off, worse off, or about the same. I'm guessing the latter.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-07 12:54:29Anna, sounds like you and I had quite similar childhoods; except we lived a bit out in the country, away from other kids. One guess as to what song is now irremovably in mind, no doubt for the rest of the day. ("Set a course for adventure, your mind on a new romance...")* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2004-06-07 14:09:45 For what it's worth, told a good friend who is a father about the bell-ringing business. He thought it was really bizarre... :)* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-07 14:12:27 Well, believe it or not our mom still has the LOUD handbell that she used to ring to call us in from the (big) backyard.* * * * * * * * * * * * Iss - 2004-06-07 20:47:22 What a thread to conjure up images.....I will officially vouch for Ypsidixit's authentic claim to rope-ladder-treehouse fame....I envied it as I couldn't climb it at all.....just wistfully gazed up from below, as little sisters do. I have to admit that my kids have 'scheduled' playdates which usually are not quite as much fun as the days like today in which I puttered around in backyard and my kiddies puttered around by themselves, slopping water to all the trees, toad hunting, generally making a mess. No TV for us on idyllic days as such. Big dinner bell per Ypsidixit was also to call us from across-the-street neighbor's pond where we would languish in slightly mucky water with no grownups telling us to be careful, no lifejackets, and miraculously, a lot of lazy summer days spent in fun. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-07 22:28:16 It was *definitely* mucky, with extra-oozy lakebottom. Extra points if you dove way down and squished your toes in the (ugh!) black mud. Now that you mention it, we didn't have lifejackets, did we? Mighty far from either house, too. I had forgotten about the bell, though, Iss--thanks for the reminder. I guess I didn't realize you ever wanted to come up to the treehouse (why didn't we rig up a ladder?) Amazing how fearless kids are.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-06-07 22:57:01 Geez, now I'm dying to go back to the Harpster's pond for one more swim... * * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: |