So I am not allowed to put a "It's a Girl!" sign up

Seems like a bit of an overreaction.

 

Thanks Obama.

 

I'm starting to think that all you do is sit around all day watching drew carey, ron paul, and penn gillette tell you what to think.

Those guys have some good ideas, but dude... diversify from reason.tv once in a while

 

When I was 7 years old we use to leave Sat morning and ride our bikes 3 miles on the levy along the Harvey Canal to the river - the Mississippi river and cross over on the Ferry into New Orleans and just have a blast causing mischief. I wouldn't trade those days away for anything and they shaped who I am.

Kids need to be allowed to explore. All you can do is prepare them (look both ways before you cross the street) and tell them to be smart.

 

When I have a kid, I'm going to be universally regarded as that crappy parent since I'm going to give my kid a ton of freedom/responsibility at a young age.

It's really the only way they can learn and grow.

Yes, bad things will happen, but I'd feel worse if I treated my kid like a prisoner and didn't let them screw up/be in danger every once in a while.

 

Studies have shown that conservatives tend to be scared more easily.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/fearmongering-h/

 

Sounds to me like your brother-in-law has a simple case of being a new, over-protective father.

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Yeah, gen-x in particular seems to have freaked out on parenting. I guess all those very special episodes and elementary school assemblies about kidnapping and drug use, and maybe some the darker Hughes-era teen movies, must have done a number on us. All that obsession with controlling the environment can veer off into clinically paranoid or even quasi-prejudicial tangents. My biggest peeve is when I hear parents worrying about their kids being scared at a movie, only to find out it's a freaking Pixar cartoon.

Broinlaw may just passive aggressively be marking his territory, even maybe just his lawn.

 

The message we have sent to kids over the last 20 or so years is that every adult stranger is a potential kidnapper/molester. That can hardly be a good thing.

 

Shouldn't Ron Paul be addressing this egregious encroachment of big government into suburbia from the floor of Congress?

 

bobrek

It's easy to say what you will do. Wait until you have a child and then see what you have to say.

Also, I am curious as to what you mean by allowing your child to "be in danger".

For example, when I was 10 or 11 I used to walk to Northline Mall, by myself (late 1960s), and hang around for a while. No way did I let my child walk to a mall and hang around by themselves when they were that age. Things were different then.

 

Things weren't different then. But Northline Mall sure was.

Letting your kid go to a place which would be the equivalent of the 1960's version of Northline Mall probably isn't that big of a deal, IMO.

 

Interesting topic. It is wierd to largely agree with rtsy. I blame a lot of it on the media and the way it makes money off of crime news. I was surrpised to go to an in-laws house and see that they have practically whole channels that run back to back show that sort of reenact crimes.

When my kid was about 6 I left him in the car at a convenience store in a sleepy suburban neighborhood and went into get a paper after pumping gas, keeping a sort of eye on him. When I came out in about three minutes. He was scared and said he was really scared he would be carjacked.

I said: that is just stuff you see in movies. Don't worry. It isn't true. He said: "no, dad, it is ture I saw it on the news last night. No more local news for him.

I call local news "crime weather and sports" One time after espousing my view I watched the local news. As usual "news" was the daily murder, rape car jacking, etc. the weather was the weather and in sports three of the four stories were about athletes selling drugs, assaulting people in bars and committing crimes.

 

I don't care which mall it is, I would not let my 11 year old walk 2+ miles to a mall and hang around for a few hours by themselves.

Also, what are some of the dangerous situations you will allow your child to be in?

Things WERE different then. There are more cars on the streets now, more distractions such as cell phones, fancy stereos, more attitude, more gangs, etc.

 

I blame Lifetime.

 

Real men don't watch Lifetime.

 

I blame the tea party candidates and their use of fear mongering tactics. It has made their voters afraid of everything.

 

Hey, I said I BLAME Lifetime. Not that I WATCH Lifetime!! :grin: