Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 10, 2016

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No thanks to them, apparently.

Unfortunately, she found her way back.

The truth is, they didn’t have to be helicopter parents. Your kids won’t grow up well adjusted, at least they gave you room to grow and learn from your own mistakes.

When I look back, compared to how “child proofed” the world is today, I am amazed that I got to what passes for adulthood in one piece. No child seat or seatbelts, no bicycle helmet, no outlet covers, no locks on cabinets, etc., etc. My parents must have been criminal to not have all of that protection for me.

Well, I asked yesterday what Nancy’s upbringing was like. Now I know.

It’s awful today when you smile at a child and he or she runs behind their mother looking terrified. Even if you’re running the cash register at the grocery store.

My parents once sent me on my way from Nigeria to Montreal when I was 10 years old…(we were living there because my father had a 3-year contract, and I had to go back because there were no schools there). I was so used to airports and travel that I wasn’t even nervous…in fact, it was a great adventure! Today, of course, it would be impossible…

Kids today can’t even go on a bike ride around the block on their own?! Man, I’m glad I was born when I was.

Cinci, maybe; Pittsburgh, never.

And she still hasn’t been trained to stop using her parents as babysitters. Well, they’ll just have to keep trying.

The two life changing events for a boy in the 50s were getting your first bike, and getting your driver’s license.I got a 1953 Schwinn Hornet for my 10th birthday, and my driver’s license in 1959. Life as I knew it changed on both occasions.Discovering girls is a topic for another time and place.

“We did it in love.”

When I was a kid living in Memphis I used to ride my bike for miles up and down the same road the Graceland sits on. In high school, after having moved to Georgia, my best friend and I camped out on the streets of downtown Atlanta to buy Queen (and other) concert tickets.

How am I alive?

The goal of raising children is to help them develop independence.

As children we. 1) drink water from a rubber hose2) used butter that had been left in the breadbox and not the fridge3) Ate tuna/chicken/egg salad sandwiches when at the beach. Said delicacies had been in the sun for a while4) We weren’t encased in bubblewrap. Common sense was used by us and our parents. In spite of all of that, we survived childhood.

I think the question should be not “How am I still alive?” but "Why? "

I’m very lucky to be a free-range child

Very different parenting mindsets…

www . freerangekids.com

Life isn’t safe, people need to be hurt to learn. How many times does one learn from not being hurt and always being okay? rarely if ever…

I look at life as I only live it once, why waste it being safe and bored afraid to do anything. Instead just be smart and only take reasonable risks with reasonable safety measures.

Example don’t jump out of a plane without a parachute, use a chute…but even then there is always a slim chance it won’t open, or the backup too…rare but possible but still worth the risk.

…you can only change the locks so many times

@Ottodesu: Maybe it’s an airline policy. A few years ago (5?) I was on a flight from Paris to the US (probably Dulles, I can’t recall) and was asked if I could watch the two young boys being seated next to me. I think they were brothers, ages 7 and 10 or so. They had some document hanging around their neck, but I don’t know what their situation was. I speak pretty much no french and they spoke no english. I said it was OK anyway and the attendant left them with me. They were well behaved and entertained themselves so I didn’t really have to do anything. Not sure if they had a connection, unaccompanied or not, when they got to the USA.

I did a similar trip when I was 13, with my 14 year old brother and 11 year old sister, unaccompanied, with a transfer at JFK, from Milan to Rochester, NY, a parent in Milan and one in Rochester. This was 1984 though. At that age, in my small town in Italy, I used to ride my bike with a couple of school friends 10-20 miles from home regularly. Very free range. :)

Mom and Dad took us to the beach often in the 50s and early 60s. This was in N. Florida. We were allowed to ride on the open tailgate of the station wagon for the entire 30 mile trip. Two lane road, probably 45-55 mph limit. One good bump and my parents would have been childless….hey, wait a minute…

Well, just riding a bike is more dangerous than riding one without a helmet, so logically, if they want their children to be “safe,” parents shouldn’t let them ride bicycles at all. Or let them go outside their homes. Or let them learn to walk instead of crawl.

oddly enough, the only time i flew by myself as a kid was to pittsburgh. although i was 15 by then

When my brother was a teen (14 i think) he went by train from Garrett, IN to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada by himself and changed trains in Chicago and Winnipeg. No problem.

I’d rather fly than ride a bike.

Just as well I never learned to ride a bike anyway!

xxx

Terrible things that happen to children are news. Terrible things done by terrible people are news. None of it means that terrible people are lurking around every corner with the intention to do terrible things to your children. Everyone has to learn how to evaluate their own limits, how to assess danger, how to manage risk, and how and when to take chances. If we don’t start learning these things in childhood, we will have to learn them as grow-ups. The consequences become much greater when we are adults. That’s why it is important for children to make mistakes, use poor judgment, and have accidents while they are still young enough to recover and learn from them.

Too bad Neighbor Nancy didn’t stay in Pittsburgh. Or maybe she did stay there long enough to have her little brats before running back to mommy and daddy for free babysitting….

I am so glad that I was a kid in the 60’s. I went anywhere I wanted. I never called home. Played “War” with dirt clods and sticks. Caught crawdads, started campfires, made slingshots and bows-and-arrows with sharp points. Rode my bicycle miles from home. Poor kids nowadays got nuthin’ on us.

I had to be 12 before I was allowed to ride on the highway. We didn’t wear helmets. I’m 55. We need more Darwinian sorting. Not that it helps with Congress.

Hell when I was twelve I rode from Walpole MA to Marlboro MA to see a girl. All my dad said was “you’re nuts.”

that is absolutely amazing.