ScottySatan
Well-Known Member
When I was a kid, it was the mid and late 80's. I lived in a rural area surrounded by forest and beach. I had video games but they weren't very good back then, so I mostly played outside with my friends. When I was 8, I had a lock-blade pocket knife with a 5 inch blade. I had a forged steel hatchet, the kind you chopped logs with. I had a compound bow with arrows having pointy aluminium tips. I had an air rifle. I had a baseball bat. I would strap all that stuff to my chest and run out into the woods to play war with the other kids, armed to the teeth with these potentially lethal weapons. We would try our hardest to shoot each other in the junk with that stuff. I'd sometimes end up playing a couple of miles away from the house, parent's would have no idea where I was.
I'm really thankful for that childhood, and yes, I think kids today are sissies.
But now I have a two year-old boy who also likes to be as dangerous as he can be. And to turn him loose the way I was seems unthinkable; partly because we live in a city. I remember a stereotype, though, of children in old-timey Brooklyn getting together in the street for unsupervised stickball. Did that really happen? I don't see anything like that going on today; only little league games where adults outnumber kids.
I think it's important for a kid to experience danger, risk, conflict without the parental safety-net.
I'm looking for input. How much freedom do you give the kids in 2013?
I'm really thankful for that childhood, and yes, I think kids today are sissies.
But now I have a two year-old boy who also likes to be as dangerous as he can be. And to turn him loose the way I was seems unthinkable; partly because we live in a city. I remember a stereotype, though, of children in old-timey Brooklyn getting together in the street for unsupervised stickball. Did that really happen? I don't see anything like that going on today; only little league games where adults outnumber kids.
I think it's important for a kid to experience danger, risk, conflict without the parental safety-net.
I'm looking for input. How much freedom do you give the kids in 2013?