4 ms·

This is awesome. When I was in second grade, my mom dropped us off for summer camp at a ranch in South Texas. I remember crying and clinging onto her, trying

This is awesome. When I was in second grade, my mom dropped us off for summer camp at a ranch in South Texas. I remember crying and clinging onto her, trying to talk her out of it but she left us anyway and I'm glad she did. We spent the next two weeks riding horses and playing in a muddy swamp and doing leather crafts. When she came back to pick us up, we probably cried twice as hard because we didn't want to leave. The next summer, we stayed for three terms (six weeks). I hope that this German idea takes root here and an anti-helicopter trend starts in the US. I do everything to raise my two young sons (2 and 5 years) in an environment where they're allowed to take risks but it's tough because this attitude is shared by so few of their friends' parents, even here in deeply red small-town Kansas. EDIT: Just remembered about the sweet outdoor preschool on Vashon Island in Washington State. Check this out: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/outdoor-preschool-takes-root-on-vashon-island/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/outdoor-preschool-...

scottLobster 9y ago
I have a feeling it will be a generational thing. It's anecdotal, but I grew up with helicopter parents and have talked to many others who did as well, I've yet to hear anyone speak positively about the experience. Mostly we all got to adulthood and discovered how laughably unprepared we were for basic life tasks. The more successful ones confront it in college and move on, the less successful ones stay in college and promote "safe spaces" to prolong the coddling.
- tomjakubowski 9y ago
  Plenty of us less successful ones simply become immature, dysfunctional adults.
- spaceseaman 9y ago
  > the less successful ones stay in college and promote "safe spaces" to prolong the coddling. This is not in any way what a safe space is - stop promoting this completely inaccurate meme to further your own personal viewpoint. It has absolutely nothing to do with being unprepared for "real-life" or some other such nonsense. In fact I'm so confused why you would even bring up such a non-related topic, you must have quite the talent for shifting conversations to your favor. "In educational institutions, safe space (or safe-space), safer space, and positive space are terms that, as originally intended, were used to indicate that a teacher, educational institution, or student body did not tolerate anti-LGBT violence, harassment or hate speech, thereby creating a safe place for all LGBT students." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space (Just to be clear, I have no intention of derailing this thread into the merits of safe spaces - this probably ain't the space. I just felt it was necessary to call out.)
  - adrianratnapala 9y ago
    I have upvoted you to cancel the downvotes, since it is right that we see the counter-view about safe-spaces. But in case you are wondering about the downvotes, it is because you have done the opposite of convince anyone. The tone of your comment seems like over-reaction and is just going to confirm the priors of anyone who doesn't see things your way.
    - spaceseaman 9y ago
      I was not attempting to convince anyone. The above poster claimed that safe spaces were meant to "prolong the coddling" of childhood, yet this directly contradicts the history of creation and specified intention of safe spaces. There is no opinion and thus no "counter-view" to be had about what led to their creation and their creators' intentions as those are facts. Now one is free to have the opinion that safe spaces stifle discussion, or prevent ideas from being addressed or some other such things - those are all opinions and all views that can have their nuances. But safe spaces were never created to prolong some sense of childhood comfort or safety - like I said, that idea is just a popular meme of the alt-right.
sliverstorm 9y ago
Sounds a lot like scout camp. Look into scouting. There's a lot of bad press about the BSA, but each troop is really very independent, and your local troop may be far more inclusive than you might expect. As a kid we were shooting bows, all kinds of guns, camping, backpacking, roping, fishing, paddling, sailing, firestarting, tomahawk throws, etc... Especially in KS, I have to expect those kinds of parents are around, you just have to find them.
- op00to 9y ago
  If you don’t want to support the horribly discriminatory national Boy Scouts organization, check out https://www.bpsa-us.org https://www.bpsa-us.org Baden-Powell Service Association which is a far more inclusive organization without all the religious overtones.
thom 9y ago
Always good to hear from Trump voters how their upbringing never did them any harm.
- dang 9y ago
  That was totally unacceptable abuse of a fellow community member. If you post anything this nasty to HN again we will ban you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - thom 9y ago
    Go right ahead.
    - dang 9y ago
      I don't want to! Your comment history is excellent and we appreciate having you here. It's just that HN users aren't allowed to attack each other, and generally not allowed to import the political battlefield that everywhere else seems to have turned into. I could have been less aggressive myself in how I expressed that though. It's a constant struggle not to partly reproduce the thing one is criticizing.

scottLobster 9y ago

I have a feeling it will be a generational thing. It's anecdotal, but I grew up with helicopter parents and have talked to many others who did as well, I've yet to hear anyone speak positively about the experience. Mostly we all got to adulthood and discovered how laughably unprepared we were for basic life tasks. The more successful ones confront it in college and move on, the less successful ones stay in college and promote "safe spaces" to prolong the coddling.

tomjakubowski 9y ago
Plenty of us less successful ones simply become immature, dysfunctional adults.
spaceseaman 9y ago
> the less successful ones stay in college and promote "safe spaces" to prolong the coddling. This is not in any way what a safe space is - stop promoting this completely inaccurate meme to further your own personal viewpoint. It has absolutely nothing to do with being unprepared for "real-life" or some other such nonsense. In fact I'm so confused why you would even bring up such a non-related topic, you must have quite the talent for shifting conversations to your favor. "In educational institutions, safe space (or safe-space), safer space, and positive space are terms that, as originally intended, were used to indicate that a teacher, educational institution, or student body did not tolerate anti-LGBT violence, harassment or hate speech, thereby creating a safe place for all LGBT students." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space (Just to be clear, I have no intention of derailing this thread into the merits of safe spaces - this probably ain't the space. I just felt it was necessary to call out.)
- adrianratnapala 9y ago
  I have upvoted you to cancel the downvotes, since it is right that we see the counter-view about safe-spaces. But in case you are wondering about the downvotes, it is because you have done the opposite of convince anyone. The tone of your comment seems like over-reaction and is just going to confirm the priors of anyone who doesn't see things your way.
  - spaceseaman 9y ago
    I was not attempting to convince anyone. The above poster claimed that safe spaces were meant to "prolong the coddling" of childhood, yet this directly contradicts the history of creation and specified intention of safe spaces. There is no opinion and thus no "counter-view" to be had about what led to their creation and their creators' intentions as those are facts. Now one is free to have the opinion that safe spaces stifle discussion, or prevent ideas from being addressed or some other such things - those are all opinions and all views that can have their nuances. But safe spaces were never created to prolong some sense of childhood comfort or safety - like I said, that idea is just a popular meme of the alt-right.

sliverstorm 9y ago

Sounds a lot like scout camp. Look into scouting. There's a lot of bad press about the BSA, but each troop is really very independent, and your local troop may be far more inclusive than you might expect. As a kid we were shooting bows, all kinds of guns, camping, backpacking, roping, fishing, paddling, sailing, firestarting, tomahawk throws, etc... Especially in KS, I have to expect those kinds of parents are around, you just have to find them.

op00to 9y ago
If you don’t want to support the horribly discriminatory national Boy Scouts organization, check out https://www.bpsa-us.org https://www.bpsa-us.org Baden-Powell Service Association which is a far more inclusive organization without all the religious overtones.

thom 9y ago

Always good to hear from Trump voters how their upbringing never did them any harm.

dang 9y ago
That was totally unacceptable abuse of a fellow community member. If you post anything this nasty to HN again we will ban you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- thom 9y ago
  Go right ahead.
  - dang 9y ago
    I don't want to! Your comment history is excellent and we appreciate having you here. It's just that HN users aren't allowed to attack each other, and generally not allowed to import the political battlefield that everywhere else seems to have turned into. I could have been less aggressive myself in how I expressed that though. It's a constant struggle not to partly reproduce the thing one is criticizing.