Boyhood under attack?

[trekgeezer]

You know when I was a kid I was clumsy and usually got picked last most of the time.  I didn't much care for any kind of ball, including dodge ball.  Later in life it was discovered that I had a undiagnosed vision problem which caused a big blind spot in my left eye and explained why I couldn't catch a ball worth a damn.  How can you watch the ball without seeing it all the time?

Anyway, the point is I survived all those indignities and evidently wasn't damaged severely by them.

I did however play Cowboys and Indians and I probably killed enough Krauts and Japs to have won the WWII single handedly. The knees in my pants stayed worn and grass stained most of the time from jumping in foxholes.  My prize possession at age 9 was my Mattel Tommy Gun.  My heroes were the Magnificent Seven and Vic Morrow and the crew from the tv series "Combat!"

I have often told my wife that the fusses that girls get into have far too much talking going on.  Boys when I was growing up  typically got p**sed, somebody hit somebody and it was over and they were back to being friends.  I don't know how it would be these days, we didn't generally have to worry about someone pulling a gun out of their book satchel and mowing down the playground.


Even as inept at sports as I was I don't think I could've gone for yoga.  Here, read the article.

One thing I know is that kids aren't allowed to be kids  the way we were when I was young.

[Snivelly]

No, they really aren't.  The kinds of behaviors that people used to accept as normal little boy behavior are now the things that people think should be reason to dope little kids up until they're basically carrots with feet, or things that can get them expelled from school. 

I got a note home from my five year old daughter's teacher just this past Friday telling me that she thinks Val should be watching something other than Godzilla because "the soldiers and all the destruction scenes just can't be good for a still developing mind."  I politely told her to mind her own business, and unless there's a specific clause about kaiju in the school handbook that my child could play Godzilla on the playground to her heart's content.  (Apparently my little rabble rouser has found a couple of the boys who like Godzilla also and they're playing that everyday instead of singing Barney songs and drawing rainbows.)

[raj]

Good for your kid, Snivelly.

I was utterly pathetic at gym growing up.  Yet I loved dodgeball.  It gave me the chance every once in a while to get back at the athletic kids.

My sister has banned toy guns from her household.  Yet my nephew has managed to use other things as guns.

[Khaz]

A tussle? At school nowadays? The police would probably get called in and a restraining order put up When I was growing up, I used to get into bloody fistfights with my best friend on a weekly basis. Just as you said, within a couple of hours, we'd be playing again.

No, they really aren't.  The kinds of behaviors that people used to accept as normal little boy behavior are now the things that people think should be reason to dope little kids up until they're basically carrots with feet, or things that can get them expelled from school. 

I got a note home from my five year old daughter's teacher just this past Friday ...

I hear ya there, I recently had a rather lengthly scolding from my daughters teacher for "allowing" her to bring my old D&D monster manual to school for show-and-tell. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they give up bashing D&D back in the 90's? They were really nailing me to the wall for allowing my kid to bring such questonable content to school, you would think that the book was full of fur porn or something.. Yep, just waiting for the day when I get called in to be told I have to drug my kids for being too imaginative in school

[IzzyDedjet]

  kudos and karma to you Snivelly, for telling a busy body to keep her nose on her own side of the septic tank, and for raising a lil girl who's into Godzilla.
   I personally, don't have any kids, but I like to think that my boys would be the gun slinging hooligans that I was when I was growing up.
   It really chaps my butt to think that people are drugging our kids into legless mushrooms just because of p**s poor parenting and teaching skills.
   If people would put aside their own petty issues and realize that kids acting up or acting out is just a part of growing up, things just might be better off...spend time with the kids, don't plop them down in front of a TV or video game.  Chase their asses outside instead of letting them get all myopic and fat in the house.
   When I was a kid, one would be hard pressed to find me inside, regardless of the season.
   The thing that I think epitomizes the fact that childhood is under attack, is the fact that I was at Walmart the other day, and saw a 10 year old girl with a cel-phone.
   When I was a kid, if I wasn't within earshot of the house, my mom knew where I was, who I was with and whether or not I'd be eating dinner with them.  Basically, the less mom saw me, the better it was for both of us.  I was out of her hair, and she wasnt finding *gaspity-gasp gasp* CHORES for me to do.

   FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, PEOPLE...LET YOUR KIDS BE KIDS. 

Let them get dirty.  Let them tear their clothes doing things like climbing fences and falling off their bikes.
   Kids are made to bounce, and I say they should be allowed to. 
   Kids, especially wee ones need a daily dose of at LEAST a handful of dirt.  Let the lil duffer eat dirt.  It wont hurt them.
   
   It didn't hurt me any.

[Shadow]

I don't have kids, but this is just one item on my long list of reasons why I don't want offspring. It seems more and more some people just cannot handle how others do things. They agree with the freedoms of this country as long as you do things the way they think it should be done. Raising kids is top on the list. We saddle kids with so much these days that I wonder how they can even enjoy being a kid at times. Karma, Snivelly for standing up to the thought police.

[nshumate]

Given that I have four kids, I should have something to add here.  Instead, I will simply agree emphatically.  Fortunately, I've had no such altercations with professional educators over my own kids' behavior, but my preplanned response is simply, "Unless you're willing to buy them clothes and put a roof over their heads, you let ME worry about the parenting."