The Strangers Aren’t The Danger

Because too many of us are awful and stupid, science was required to explain this to us. Kids free to explore and play are more healthy, study finds

Stay tuned next week for people who drink water are less likely to dehydrate, research suggests.

I wish I could explain how far around the bend it drives me that people my age are the ones ruining this crop of kids. I just don’t get how it happened. I know that each generation changes from the one that came before. Things are learned, adjustments are made. That’s sensible. But how did we get…here? How, so quickly, did we go from why don’t you go out and have some fun with your friends for the day to it’s 2 o’clock, time for your play date? From be home before dark to I’ll drop you off and pick you up? Or even worse, to I’ll take you there and then just hang around to make sure nothing happens? From don’t fall off the monkey bars to oh my god there are monkey bars here, don’t even look at them or you’re all going to die? From try not to get hurt at the playground to barely even allowed to have a playground? What the hell happened?

Forget all the focus on physical activity. What about all of the lost opportunities for kids to be kids? To learn how to socialize and have imaginations and eventually grow into functional adult human beings? You know, all of the opportunities our parents gave us while they were busy not smothering our spirit to death.

And don’t even get me started on all this stranger danger garbage. it’s no worse now than it was then. If something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. there’s only so much you can do to prevent it. Do your best, then hope for the same. Unless you can prove to me that there was no such thing as pedophiles in the 70s and 80s, go back in the house and let Jimmy ride his bike down the damn block. Trust that he’ll remember the lessons you taught him. If you’re a good parent and he’s a good kid, he will. We all did.

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