Resourceful Kids or Irresponsible Parents?

[antof9]

Maybe a little of both. Today is both trash day and recycle day*, so I put the bins out with the garbage can this morning.

On last night's NBC Nightly News, there was an entire story about (roughly paraphrasing here)childhood obesity. They talked about how kids under 9 just naturally want to play, and play outside. The number of hours of

Comments

[antof9]

When I think about all the freedom I had as a kid -- and how much my parents and grandparents had, too -- I think it's really sad that we are SO overprotective of kids today

wandererjen and I talk about this all the time. We mock people who use things like Purell regularly, won't let their kids cross the street, etc., etc. I honestly can picture my brothers doing this. But that would have been 30 years ago.

[emperor_fool]

What buffra said. I support free-range kids.

[antof9]

"free-range kids"

*giggle*

[thebiblioholic]

Impressive: You drank so many cans of soda!

[antof9]

hee hee :) we do drink quite a bit of pop. That, plus friends visiting who drink it too, plus recycle every other week pretty much ensures we'll always have lots o' cans in our bins!

[sunneschii]

Only the first one.

When I remembered, what we did as kids, what these boys are doing looks like the safest piece of cake. And the only serious accident we ever had was when my sister was shot in the eye with an arrow (she is fine).
Parents can be overprotective. Let those kids make their own discoveries. And if they cut themselves, their parents can give them a band-aid.

[antof9]

yikes at "shot in the eye with an arrow"! Glad she's fine.

Well, with the broken bottle in the bottom of the bin, I was more worried about the Emergency Room doctor giving them stitches than their parents giving them band-aids, but yes, we did a lot of crazy things when I was a kid, too. And further from home than these boys were, too. They live halfway down my cul-de-sac :)

[sunneschii]

Exactly! We went rock (or rather: wall) climbing in the woods in kindergarten.... of course, this was way further away then our parents allowed us to go!

[petuniasmama]

Both! It is impressive resourcefulness on the part of the boys AND worrying irresponsibility on the part of the parents.

[antof9]

Thank you! Your reaction is exactly what mine is :)

[lizmopuddy]

OK, I'm guessing you get paid for recycling in the States!

My theory is fair play to them, if they get cut, they'll know to use gloves next time.

My only concern, is if litigation is as rife in the US as we are led to believe, if they cut themselves on your garbage that they are stealing out of your bin, can they sue you??

[antof9]

hee hee! I actually wondered if I should say that when I wrote it, but then I decided that my Friends from Foreign were smart enough to figure it out even if they didn't know it already :) Yes, in most parts, you can get money for cans (several states give you cash for bottles, too).

I like your theory :)

Your litigation question was on my mind, frankly. I didn't think so much about suing, but I did think about "responsibility". That is, what if they got cut and needed stitches and their insurance didn't cover that? Since it happened on my property, I'm probably legally responsible for the emergency room visit. I suppose that's why we pay homeowner's insurance. At a very basic level, that's not too scary. But ... what if the broken glass sliced a tendon or worse or they got wounded here and then hurt because of the wound going home and for some reason required years of rehabilitation or something? Would we be responsible for that? Because they were rummaging through my trash

[antof9]

ooh -- good call on the PI application.

... and giggling at your "eww"