Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Killing Childhood

I too am surprised I am alive today.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post. Most of those videos could have been from my childhood in the 60's and 70's. I have made many a rant about America's paranoid obsession with safety. So much of it is utterly ridiculous and does nothing to protect the kids in the long run and in reality does more real damage than any theoretical benefit. This really started taking off in the 90's under Clinton and has reached the point where a childhood activities like I had is not only unimaginable but would probably land the parents in jail for child neglect.

The requirement and overuse of child restraints is a variation of this. We used to travel in the family car with 4 or more kids bouncing around the back seats or sitting with the adults up front. This arrangement worked quite and allowed a family of 6 or 7 to fit in one medium sized car. Thanks to child seat laws it is now impossible to put more than 2 kids in a back seat and 2 adults up front, (no kids allowed in laps anymore or anywhere in front seats) More than 2 kids and you need to buy a van or monster SUV. And yet the liberals wonder why people need SUV's and want to downsize cars even more? Maybe they should have some kids and try to fit three in a Prius.

I always thought the whole seat belt/child restraint (child safety in general really) was more of a way to socialists to just get the foot in the door and get people accustomed to the govt interfering in their day-to-day lives. The govt doesn't have much to fear from a citizenry that accepts the govt. has the right and the duty to tell them buckle up and strap that kid in the back in a govt approved child seat.

Anonymous said...

I was born a few years too late, in the late 80's to be exact. I did indeed have the single mother, overprotected upbringing. Missed quite a lot because of it.

Anonymous said...

Lol!
Childhood in the late 70s/early eighties here. How poignant.

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid we used to chase each other with rocks.