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I grew up in Bulgaria. We now live in USA, and have a baby. Well, I'm just wondering where the hell, he's going to play. When I was a kid, we were playing soc
by malkia 18y ago
I grew up in Bulgaria. We now live in USA, and have a baby.
Well, I'm just wondering where the hell, he's going to play.
When I was a kid, we were playing soccer on the street, or in between the blocks, throwing stones at other kids, fighting with plastic/wood swords, driving self-mad woodcars, and everyday I was with a scratch, or I dunno what else.
Even earlier when I was 4, me and my cousing, just an year older than me, somehow decided that we need one of our toys that was left in the other part of the city, so we just took off (I'm not sure what's the distance - but it was in the 5km-10km range) and started walking... Everybody got scared, family, etc. But it was fun story anyway...
This all was up till 8th grade, when I started programming, once that started, I kind of lost interrest in playing outside, it was just the Apple ][, my friend's Oric, and my other's friend PC.
Well I certainly want my kid to play for free, hopefully there are some parks around, but the whole society is a bit too much afraid. Yes, I know - sexual predators, kidnappers, yada, yada - it's a little 1984 that we us parents create though, for our own safety (so our mind is always safe).
- dfranke 18y agoGet a house with a decent-sized yard. Make your own playground. Get your kid and the neighbors' kids involved in helping build it. A seesaw is a one-by-eight, a triangular block, and a pair of hinges. A swing is a tire and a rope or a plank and two ropes.
- sown 18y agoSo he can get sued by the other parents when something happens?
- dfranke 18y agoThis is the most depressing comment I've ever read on this site. Where do I even begin? 1. Anybody can sue anybody over damn near anything. This has always been so. It is not a recent development. 2. Getting sued does not mean the apocalypse. Judges have three-figure IQs. They know a frivilous lawsuit when they see one and will award attorney's fees to the defendant. 3. The risk of serious injury is minimal. Little Johnny's parents aren't going to sue because he scraped his knee. The worst injury with any probability high enough to be worth expending any gray matter on considering it is a broken bone. Bones heal.
- davidw 18y agoLooks like an 'attractive nuisance' situation to me, if you're not careful about it (such as limiting access), but I'm not a lawyer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractive_nuisance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractive_nuisance
- briancooley 18y agoFence your yard. Get liability insurance as part of your homeowner's insurance. It's relatively cheap and you should have it anyway.
- DanielBMarkham 18y agoLive in a more rural area. Buy a place with a big yard. Cities don't seem very conducive to families. I think once you reach a certain mass of people, the worry-warts take over and take all the fun out of everything. In my experience, for what it's worth, more rural areas usually foster more fun play for the kids. Plus more rural settings encourage kids to use their imaginations to create fun play, which is sadly lacking today.
- albertcardona 18y agoLive in a more rural area. Buy a place with a big yard. That buys you isolation, not freedom.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y agoThere are many days when what I really want is freedom from other peoples' presence. "40 acres and a high-speed internet connection"
- nradov 18y agoI grew up in rural area and it was boring. There wasn't much to do beyond climbing trees and catching lizards. Not recommended.
- DanielBMarkham 18y agoI said the same thing to my folks when growing up, and I heard it from my kids. These were the same kids who not only climbed trees, but built model rockets, swam in the pond, got their ham radio license, learned to ride in the bed of a pickup truck without falling out, went hiking every week, learned to write their own programs because they were "so bored", built dams in the creek, cleared brush and built huge bonfires on the weekends, went on field trips all over the eastern seaboard with various community groups, etc. Yep. Nothing to do.
- whacked_new 18y ago> worry-warts take over and take all the fun out of everything. What an intriguing thing to say. Many people I've spoken to claim that all the fun is in the city. I guess it's a kind of caged, packaged fun.