If you haven't read this article about whether today's children are overprotected, you really shouldn't feel good about yourself.
(via finslippy)
Posted by cynical at June 30, 2008 02:06 PMThrough my trials as a parent I found that no matter how much I tried to allow "logical consequences" to take place, someone would always step in to subvert my efforts...ie if they don't do homework, they'll get bad grades...and teachers always gave 2nd, 3rd, 4th chances to pass and then give them passing grades anyway. It's a lose lose situation.
Posted by: Karan on July 1, 2008 07:17 PMI think the "cocoon" provides the reason for student entitlement. "I worked hard" is usually the excuse for a revision. (Which I do not allow them to do ...)
"I worked hard to engineer that bridge, but it still collapsed. It's not *my* fault."
I'm glad for all of the skinned knees and elbows (even the broken jaw from a bike wreck).
Posted by: tomorrow on July 2, 2008 11:17 AMwow, that is a great article. i roamed far and wide as a kid, all my friends did. i learned to be self-reliant and think on my feet. i worry about my son, since it is absolutely true that society pressures us to keep our kids in plastic bubbles.
Posted by: dotlizard on July 4, 2008 02:59 AMWhen I was ten and eleven I rode my bike to school every day, up Westwood Boulevard in LA. That's an extremely busy street, and yet I managed to survive it for two years. When I was in high school I rode about three miles to school; on the days I had an orthodontist appointment, I left school, rode three miles back past my house plus another mile, then, teeth hurting like the dickens because they'd just had the bands tightened, I managed to ride four miles back to school.
Nobody said "I, yes, or no." And this was in the awful 1960s!
Posted by: Linkmeister on July 4, 2008 08:32 PMI got myself in and out of a lot of jams when I was a kid. I rode my bike for hours each day, helped build rickity tree houses, played with fireworks and drove a car at age 11. My parents encouraged me to be adventurous.
Kids today are totally wimpy.
Their mothers arrange play dates and they need Day Minders to keep track of their busy schedules.
Or else they sit on their jumbo butts and play video games day and night, while they microwave chicken nuggets and other crap they can eat while they're playing.
We're rearing a generation of soft little punks, and the smartest people aren't breeding.