The softest generation.... ever!

[Skids]

[think positive]

[pietillidie]

A bizarre thread, but I'd be far more concerned about the intellectual laziness if I were you, Skids. These whimps of kids can barely read a complex argument or solve a difficult problem without sooking.

[Skids]

Very true.

Well, they were allowed out at recess today.
The seabreeze has come in early, current temp at Hillarys has plummeted to 26, still 38 in the city ...... will common sense prevail & kids be allowed out for lunch today?

And TP, your comparison of 6-11 year old kids with;shoes, hats & sunscreen playing outside for 20 minutes & a 20 week old puppy exposing her paws to hot sand and bitumen IS a smart arse comment where I come from.

[King Monkey]

I'm with Skids....... Bloody soft!!
Stui's point about discovering one's personal tolerance is spot on as well.

I'd relate it closely to the following circumstance:
A kid running along trips over and falls.
That kid's reaction is directly linked to how whoever sees it first reacts.
You give it the - "ah that was pretty funny you silly bugger, up you get," - the kid laughs it off and continues with his/her day.
You run over with a concerned look on your face and a cuddle and a worried sounding - "are you ok darling, does anything hurt?" - the kid will certainly have something wrong with them that needs your attention.

Same thing with the heat - you tell 'em it's too hot, then it's too hot. Brush it off like it's no problem, then it's no problem.

[think positive]

[David]

[stui magpie]

^

You don't have to send them out to play but at least give them the option. Make sure they're wearing hats and have access to water and shade and let em go.

As far as telling kids off for crying, my kids only cried when they were really hurt, that's how I knew. Stack the bike or skateboard and take off a chunk of skin, tell em to take a deep breath while I put metho on it (always an eyebrow raising experience), whack a bit of medicream over that and only a dressing if needed to stop it sticking to clothes or bleeding, then back outside to play. Couple of the kids down the street who'd burst into tears at the sight of their own blood were convinced my kids couldn't feel pain. They could, they just dealt with it and still do. Both son and daughter. Yeah it hurts, but sooking for attention won't take the pain away, learning to deal with it is better and running back outside with a badge of honour to show the other kids and getting straight back into playing and having fun is better again.

[HAL]

Not many people say both.

[Wokko]

How to combat this attitude though? If you're the parent who sends your kids outside to play in 40 degree heat (just like we all did; generally becoming games with sprinklers or water pistols) then you'll have DHS on your doorstep because some busy body dobs you in. We're a society of whiners, litigants, snoops and pathetic big daddy Government statist scumbags. You'll also get dobbed in for having a sprinkler going.

[stui magpie]

Speaking of soft, maybe we should consider city kids v country kids.

When I was up at mums place a couple of weeks ago, I was outside having a smoke a bit after 4 on the Friday and saw a little troupe walking past. Dad, dog, 2 kids in school uniform and 2 young girls about 5. The two young girls were both bare foot, one on a scooter the other walking. The walking one was skipping round happily on a rough bitumen road without a care in the world. Big effort considering it's about a 3km round trip from where they were to the primary school and the bindis up there are hard and woody and will puncture a bike tyre or go straight through a rubber thong into a soft foot like a hot knife through butter.

Considering how hot it gets up there in Summer, I can't see those kids being happy to stay inside because it's a little warm.

[Wokko]

I remember a guy I worked with telling me he moved from Melbourne to country Queensland and he used to get teased mercilessly because his mum made him wear shoes and all the other kids were barefoot

[stui magpie]

I hate shoes but my feet are now so soft after years of having to wear them for work I need something on my feet walking on gravel.

[Skids]

[think positive]

I hate shoes too. I'm the gal who walks in the door stripping off clothes as fast as she can. Get the shoes off, get the pants off, get the bloody god forsaken bra off, pjs on! In winter I might put uggs on. I also have a fair for scars on my feet to show for it! And an extra for the rusty nail that went through my sand shoes one summer playing at the tip. I've got a scar down one calf from a barb wire fence, farmer didn't like us playing in his hay stack! Too scared to tell my parents so my sister taped it up with sticky tape. That was in good old cotton end Bedford, town so small back then we went to school in the church! Found out the hard way not to roller skate where the ducks have been sitting on the frozen pond at Bedford park! I've smashed horses and motor bikes like no bodys business. I guess I have protected my kids from some of those war scars! Our first house was built where I used to ride my trail bike til the cops shut it down after a kid got badly hurt. Yep they rounded us all up one Sunday! Man they had some cool bikes to chase everyone with! And I'd die if I thought my kids were walking around the streets at 2 am like we used too, when we were sleeping at a friends! But then the streets were safer back then. Half my school would be down Altona beach at midnight! Are my kids soft? Probably in some ways. My eldest has some freckles on her chest from getting sunburnt in cairns riding in a convertible, not sure how the sunscreen missed that patch, but gees it looks awful, trying to fade them now. Bad mother that day. She used to lay out in the sun, I'd tell her and tell her, luckily she never fried herself, and now she's happy to be lily white with her mothers peaches and cream English complexion. Junior is darker and she was never a lie in the sun kid really, but she loves the outdoors, she's my adventure queen, like her mother. She costs me a fortune in Bondi fake tan! But that's a good thing. I have spent more hours in emergency with junior than I can count! Broken finger, cracked elbow, netball knees and ankles, a burst appendix she played a final with.
As for the school, well I never was a bitching mother at the front gate type, I'd march right in too see the principle! It started in grade one, a boy pushed my eldest off the monkey bars, he was cut cause she could do the over head ladder faster than anyone! She pushed back, he hit her, she hit back and I got hauled in to see the teacher. I said "where is the boy's mother since he started it?" She says " well you daughter left a mark, he didn't!". Me "so? He might keep his hands to himself next time!" She says "well I have to let you know it's on The record" me " and his?" She says "look, we can go see the principle of you want, but I just wanted to do this quietly" me "let's go!" She backed off! He never hit her again, neither did anyone else!

On another note, I was a class room helper, there was a feral kid in juniors class, (he left in year 2 and the whole school breathed a sigh of relief, I felt sorry for him, his mum and dad had split and it wasn't nice, but the. He liked junior so she was safe from him!). On this day, not far into prep, they had a subby teacher, and she wasn't aware of his behaviour. He was throwing chairs, screaming, etc etc, and she couldn't handle him, finally he ran out the door, I gave chase and caught him just before he ran in front of a car. I get hauled in to the principals expecting a thank you, no I get told never to lay a hand on a child. I laughed in his face. "Really? I'm sure the rest of the mums would have thanked me if the little terror got hit by the car, but I couldn't live with that!". Before he left he had given a kid twice his size a black eye, smashed a plate glass window in the office with a brick, threw another at the principal when they tried to stop him. Wonder what ever happened to him?

In high school one day, eldest in year 10 I think was meant to walk down to Altona beach and play games at the park for. Phys ed. it was coming into winter, their school uniform was a polo tshirt and a polo windcheater that was very thin, my daughter had the school rain jacket but most kids didn't, it was optional and not cheap. That morning when I dropped her off and went to work I said "you won't go, it's going to pour" the sky was already black and you could hear thunder in the distance. At about 12, with shelves of makeup all around me I get a call. Can you pick her up she's not feeling well. Bugger, I try to clean up, tell them I'll be back. I get to the school and her lips are blue, (she has always been tiny, doesn't take much to chill her). She looks like death, so do the other girls in the foyer waiting for their mums. Then I realise her clothes are wet to the skin. She got drenched through her jacket. I went ballistic! They got the teacher in I said what the hell, you could see the storm coming this morning, are you stupid or what? (Yep my exact words !) the head master comes out. And I've managed to fire up a couple of other mothers! I make no apologies. Some kids parents couldn't pick them up, I took three home. The ones left behind were ice blocks all day, they were in a portable with little heating. The teacher said I got wet too, I had to dry my shoes in the lunch room, me "I don't give a shit about you, your the moron who took them out there! At least you had the nice staff room to get warm, what about the kids left in the class?" I kept her home next day, she was crook as a dog, when she went back the next day there was only 12 kids in the class! We all got an apology.

Did a walkathon with the kids in primary school, we got half way to the beach and the hail came down, I gave my jacket to my daughter, I only had a white t shirt on, and the principle made a joke about a wet tshirt competition! I laughed! And took a few kids home with me to get dry! (We lived across the road, I was everyone's emergency contact!) and the school rung the parents of every wet child! That's how it's done! So yeah, I'm happy for the school to make a "soft" call on days of extreme weather.

I never missed a school outing except one sports day, because I was in the hospital with my other daughter when she got her appendix out. Are they soft? Spoiled yes, that's my fault. But they are good kids. There are things you can't protect them from, things you can. We went quad biking in Bali, now **** that's scary! My kids have watched their father fight cancer 3 times in the last 6 years, and it's still there. They watched my mother die a slow horrible death, they saw me grieve, I never hid it. Their nan has cancer, their poppy has cancer, and now they have to watch my brother in law suffer, he's sick, he's really sick already, he looks like death. I can't protect them from it. I'd give anything to be able to yell at someone like I used to in the principles office to make that go away. But I can't.

My kids are strong, healthy, fit, they can swim like fish, run like the wind, snorkel, they love the scariest rides, we do mud runs together, they call when they go out, more than once, so I don't worry. Maybe I'm soft.

Are they soft?

Why don't you try and tell them they are! Because as their father says, they are just like their mother! Cheers, I'm out!