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My husband and I were just discussing this subject last night. He told me about the scuba gear his uncle gave him just for helping him move. There were no thoughts as to safety issues. He first tried it out in a swimming pool to get the hang of it. Then he and a friend went out to some resivore in Chicago. Full gear he jumped in with weight belt on...kept going down. He had the wits about him to let the belt go.otherwise I don't think we would have been sitting having the discussion.
When I was about 7 my favorite toy was an air rifle. I went on 'hunting trips' that involved walking down tree lines in search of random living things to shoot....as well as non-living targets in the absense of sufficient numbers of living things.
^and yeah...fireworks....kept bottle rockets year-round. One of the favorite activities was bottle rocket wars. Involved two teams. A fort on each side. Light and launch bottle rockets at each other.
Tackle football....none of this two-hand touch business. No pads...no helmets....lots of pain and grass stains. The game typically ended when too many kids had to go inside because of injuries.
Rode bikes way far away from home. No cell phones....no way anyone knew where we were. We just said, "hey I'm going outside to ride my bike". "Outside" could very well mean we were riding to the next town or something....usually we did stay in town but we went places on our bikes that I can't see kids going unattended these days.
Went to the local bar for a game of pool. We all liked to play pool...but it's not like any of our parent's were wealthy enough to actually own a pool table much less have a dedicated room to put it in. So....to the bar we went. (This wasn't ever an approved trip but it kind of fell under the umberella of "we're going out side to ride our bikes")
Hubby and I often reminisce about homemade firecracker bombs, jumping off roofs into swimming pools, playing spin the bottle, riding bikes miles and miles from home, playing with matches .... oh my, what good times. Somehow our generation made it through all these potentially disastrous activities in one piece, and have the joy of looking back fondly at young lives free of today's hovering and overprotective micromanaging parents. Oh, the bliss!
OK, I know this is mostly about toys, but has anyone noticed that a lot of parents think their kids are going to melt in the rain, or (insert horrible thing) in the (insert weather condition). Is 1/8 or even 1/4 mile too far to walk in drizzle that the parent has to drive to the bus stop to get the kids?
I am sure this is not true of all kids, but it seems like kids are more climate-controlled (and subsequently wimpier about weather) than when I was a kid. We learned how to stay cool or warm up or deal with being wet.
Remember "once you're out you're out"? My grandmother would bring lunch outside to the patio table for me and my friends. There was a garage bathroom we had to use - sunblock, bug spray, Raid, was all in there if we needed it. No going in the house.
Heck yea I remember splashing around in the rain and being told I couldn't come back inside! I also remember drinking water from a garden hose ... not a damned plastic bottle.
OK, I know this is mostly about toys, but has anyone noticed that a lot of parents think their kids are going to melt in the rain, or (insert horrible thing) in the (insert weather condition). Is 1/8 or even 1/4 mile too far to walk in drizzle that the parent has to drive to the bus stop to get the kids?
I am sure this is not true of all kids, but it seems like kids are more climate-controlled (and subsequently wimpier about weather) than when I was a kid. We learned how to stay cool or warm up or deal with being wet.
Remember "once you're out you're out"? My grandmother would bring lunch outside to the patio table for me and my friends. There was a garage bathroom we had to use - sunblock, bug spray, Raid, was all in there if we needed it. No going in the house.
OK there is my "old lady" rant.
I was so relieved when we moved to the PNW that kids here actually do play in the rain, they have to! But back down south, yes, it was like the rain would melt them.
My current pet peeve is parents who think their child might die of dehydration or starvation without constant snack and water breaks. My daughter's ballet class is an hour long, they have two water breaks. My 3yr old's 45min soccer class has three and all the parents are anxiously waiting on the sidelines to ply their child with fruit snacks and juice. I'm all for drinking while exercising but really. And the constant snacking is silly too, your 8yr old does not need two mid-morning snacks and then one in the afternoon too. Somehow we survived (and were skinnier!) on just the occasional after school snack.
I remember riding around in the back of a small pickup. Sometimes I would ride standing up holding onto the top of the cab and let the wind blow on my face and hair. If I sat down I usually sat on the wheel well.
I remember that during school recess we went out and played even if it was 10 below zero. Now a days kids aren't allowed to go outside for recess if it is 10 degrees or colder. We also went outside during downpours as well. The only exception was if it was thundering and lightening pretty good.
We also had asphalt for a good chunk of our playground and that is where one would usually find the monkey bars and climbing type playground equipment. Now all the playground equipment has wood chips or pea gravel underneath them.
Slides were metal and not plastic (heck most playground equipment were all metal not plastic or plastic coated) and we had swingsets that you get pretty high on. I remember kids having contests to see who could swing the highest and then jump out of the swing when they were at their highest point.
Slides were metal and not plastic (heck most playground equipment were all metal not plastic or plastic coated) and we had swingsets that you get pretty high on. I remember kids having contests to see who could swing the highest and then jump out of the swing when they were at their highest point.
I remember checking the slide on sunny days to make sure I could go down it without getting 2nd degree burns. Remember playing Squeeze the Lemon on the slide? I bet the kids are not allowed to do that now (one at a time on the slide please....). That game was so much fun.
Re the swings. There are swings near the field where my daughter had soccer practice and my boys would spend almost the entire practice on them seeing how high they could get and how far they could jump off. No one ever said anything to me but I was waiting for some parent either to tell me my kids were having a bad influence on their kids or to call the authorities on me.
Hey remember when swings had the hard seats that you could stand on like a trapeze and swing really high?
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