mac

That's why the playground equipment of today are made of plastic and the "big slide" is gone, etc. I've read that schools and parks have also removed the monkey bars because kids can climb to the top and fall off. You can thank lawyers, politicians, and negligent lazy parents for the "pussification" of our children.

I remember we had big slides and even bigger swings at school. The fun part was swinging really high and then jumping off, completely over the sandbox and landing in the asphalt. Ow, that hurt. We'd also climb to the top of the jungle gym and hang on for dear life or else come crashing down - hard - on the concrete. Eventually, they installed rubber mats below.

Without any dangerous boundaries to allow children to develop common sense, they are growing up blissfuly ignorant of their own mortality. Learning that falling from 8' high onto concrete really, really friggin hurts makes you learn discipline and fear and common sense. But kids now grow up with so much protection that the first time they ever have this "learning experience" is when they turn 16 and get behind the wheel of a car and crash and injure/kill someone or themselves. But some lawyer and politician had to "make the equipment safer for the children" which actually ends up seriously harming their development.

I repeatedly learned the hard way as a kid on my BMX bike that you have to modulate the front brake and don't lock the rear brake when going down a hill. I was in front of my house on an empty street so there wasn't a chance of me getting hit by a car. Now imagine some teenager / young adult, who never rode BMX bikes as kid because their parents were afraid they might get hurt, learning to brake on a bigger bike, going faster, and on a more crowded street. That's an accident waiting to happen.

Bikepacker67

Of course, nowadays many kids are into boarding and BMX - and spend their days playing "X-games" - so I guess there's hope!

* jack *

You got that right... Jeez, if I wound up like the son my father wanted me to be... wow.
Sometimes, no matter what your intentions might be... kids 'listen' only to what they want to.


true, true, true...

javna_golina

That is so true! I'm 17, and I grew up with monkey bars, huge slides, and a lack of rubber mats. At primary school and intermediate we climbed trees and played bullrush and crude sorts of rugby when we could, even though it was against the school rules. It's shocking to see how over protecitve adults now are. Of course, if i had children of my own I may feel differently.

I remember this one park near my house I used to play it alot. It had a huge iron cannon, brown with rust (but smooth), that i used to climb on as a kid. It was a real deal cannon, not an artillery gun but something they'd fire huge black balls out of. Now it's gone. No doubt kids climbed it and fell off it. Gone now. I loved that cannon...*sigh*

Treespeed

I don't see how motivating your kids and trying to point out the problems of a sedentary lifestyle qualifies as "new age tripe." I would bet that your son's wrestling coach kicked his ass a bit and I would argue that would make quite a difference.

I don't see that any of the posters here are talking about wishful thinking. In my book the wishful thinkers are the one who advocate for warning labels on fatty/sugary food and blame society for their fat kids. Most of the posts I've read here are from parents taking an active involvement in the lives of their kids. No, we can't shape our kids like putty and I don't think anyone is arguing that we can. But dang you must have done something to instill an interest in an active life in your children. You didn't just say to them, "Go ahead and sit on the couch, have another snack, let me drive you the 1/2 mile to the mall since that's what your friend's parents do." I would imagine that you motivated them and led by a good example, how the heck is that new age? Sound's 'old school' to me. I plan on raising my kids the way I was raised and the way my grandparents raised my parents and me too.

The only way I think this fits into cycling advocacy is all of the calls for public cycling education. I'm certainly not going to wait around for my local public school to educate my kids about cycling, any more than I'm going to wait for them to educate them about any of the other risks and dangers of adult life. But back to the original post I think that without a doubt fit and active people, especially kids are more and more in the minority and it just makes it even more important for parents to try and pass down the importance of being active, whatever the activity. Not new age tripe, just common sense.

caloso

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that. There have been several threads in this subforum about school districts discouraging or even prohibiting their students from riding to school.

Treespeed

I think you misread my original statement. I'm NOT going to wait for the schools to educate my kids about cycling where it will be politicized and useless. I don't see how a school could keep a kid from riding their bike to school, but that's a topic for another thread.

Don Gwinn

Letting kids play on safe playground equipment rather than learning valuable lessons from falling onto concrete (or onto steel playground equipment) does not strike me as "pussification." Kids DO get TBI from nasty falls. . . in fact that's the leading cause.

Besides, every little town around here has swings, big slides, monkey bars, tire swings, etc. in every park. Interesting how we went from "kids should be more active" to "kids should look death in the face with a devil-may-care grin!"

I-Like-To-Bike

The posters, with few exceptions, are dreaming/planning great and wonderful things for their future children and casting aspersions at the parents who have children who don't turn out like the perfect specimens these smug bicyle advocates parents of the future predict THEY will undoubtedly guide to Nirvana. Why new age? Didn't you read the "stuff" about talking to the fetus and all the counter culture theories posted here?

The posters who write of their big plans to raise their (anticipated) "little freaks" into "big freaks" just like clockwork, just because Mom and/or Dad think that would be Swee-eet don't have a clue. They certainly write as if they are Woodstock dropouts but are more likely Woodstock wannabes who are totally clueless.



BTW, this is the first time in about 35 years I have I read or heard anyone boasting about being a "freak." That is soo-o Woodstock!

digger

Whoa! Hold on here now. Just recently I saw on the news about tennage girls who wouldn't eat and exercised too much because they were pressured into being skinny from all the supermodel ads in magazines, TV, etc. Apparantly this is a big problem amoung teenage girls. It also went onto say that they shouldn't be concerned about their looks or weight.

So what is it, are teenagers fat or are they obsessed with being skinny?

I think the media will just swing wildly both ways depending on what makes the bigger story for that day.

Digger

joejack951

People who are not fit will always bring up the point about how unhealthy it is to become obsessed with body weight. Fit people are usually not obsessed with body weight; their weight is a reflection of their exercise and good eating habits so it can appear to some that they are obsessed with their weight. The media loves to confuse people so they'll have stories about both sides and make people think that it's either ok to be disgustingly overweight or that the only way to look good is to diet and starve. This sells more diet books and more food at the same time. Perfect!

samundsen

This summer my 5 1/2 year old discovered a BMX track while on vacation in Boise. He love riding his bike, and hit the track as often as he could. He fell off his bike numerous times, scraped and bruised his hands and knees, but refused to give up. He gritted his teeth, cursed (as much as a 5 year old can curse) to himself, got back on the bike and kept riding the track. The teenagers on the track were really impressed and took him under their "wings". I'll upload a picture or two later.

sbhikes

Some eating disorders cause obesity (compulsive overeating), some are not apparent just looking at somebody (binge-purging or bulimia) and some cause people to be very thin (anorexia.) Many people have eating disorders and the lines between these three are blurry. Eating disorders are mental illnesses, especially anorexia. Anorexia is the most deadly of all mental illnesses. 20% of anorexics die from the disease.

Eating disorders can be triggered by many things, not all of which have anything at all to do with laziness or junk food or computer games or not playing outside as kids. American children are becoming more and more obese and many are getting the diseases of obesity such as type 2 diabetes. This is a different phemonenon from teen girls getting eating disorders. That is why children are both too fat and too thin.

We need a better relationship to nourishment and activity than what we have now.

caloso

I didn't misread your statement, which I totally agree with, but could have phrased my response better. I also don't see how a school district could prohibit kids from riding to school but that doesn't mean they haven't tried. See this BF thread.


I guess that as the OP you're talking about me and my freaks. But I'm not sure where I or any other poster has been naive enough to think that we'll raise kids like clockwork. My point in starting this thread is based on the premise that active parents tend to raise active kids. But since our culture is becoming less and less active, those kids when they become adults will be anomalies. (Instead of anomaly, I used freak because it's more eye-catching. It seems to have worked.)

Perhaps they'll totally rebel against everything my wife and I do and believe in. But I doubt it. Most kids absorb their parents' values because what they do in their household when they grow up is just what's normal. So what's normal in our household is that Dad rides his bike to work and Mom likes to go for walks and we all like to eat fresh food that's grown locally and prepared in our kitchen.

I also doubt that they'll be perfect specimens because they're human, just like their parents. So I'm trying to raise good humans.

But I won't raise them to be sheep.

I-Like-To-Bike

If this forum is representative of cyclists (which I don't believe for a minute), Cyclist advocates claiming to be fit seem to obsess on OTHER people's body appearance, food choices, and choices in physical activity.

AND don't seem to be concerned at all about the effect on bicycling advocacy of their stereotypes/generalizations/conventional-wisdom rants about everybody that doesn't fit the "approved" profile.

atbman

Was in a tall bulding in Toronto once on the 7th floor. Glass-walled gym with people on step machines

(could we agree on an standard ironic typeface?)

I-Like-To-Bike

And...?

bwinton

Are missing the object of the first sentence. Second sentence no verb.

I'll bet it was filled with the same people who take the elevator to the second floor in my building. I swear, some days I take the stairs after my bike in just to avoid the annoyance of other people.

Having said that, what do you all do for cross-training? Or do you not care, and have decided to just build up your biking muscles without keeping the rest of your body in balance?

I-Like-To-Bike

And...? Why/how does that effect you?

'nother

Probably in the same manner as reading replies that begin with "And...?" on an internet forum.

atbman

[QUOTE=bwinton]Are missing the object of the first sentence. Second sentence no verb.

Believe it is subject of first sentence which is missing. No second sentence - no verb = no sentence

I-Like-To-Bike

Would "So What?" be a better response to nannies and busybodys who post irrelevant rants about their various shades of disdain/contempt/hate for assorted stereotypes and strawmen on a bicycle advocacy list?

sbhikes

You don't get it? He saw people on step machines in a tall building. There are already tons of steps in the tall building, so do you really need to use step machines in the gym?

I-Like-To-Bike

Maybe you or I don't, but apparantly the people using the step machines DO want them. What is YOUR objection? Is somebody keeping those who wish to from using the all natural steps?

Roody

I didn't get it either. That's really pretty funny.

Like taking a spinning class on a beautiful spring day while the bike gathers dust in the garage.