As my generation grows up and begin having families of their own, their tolerance for danger goes down. From the time I was a kid through my adolescence I did several activities this new parents group now finds unsuitable. Which would be fine except for the fact that I know everyone my age did several idiotic activities in their youth as well. Now every new parent is a total hypocrite in how they allow their own children to interact in the world. Now that they are old they completely justify each tug on the child's leash, but I think that is BS.
When I was a kid we had a trampoline. My older brother Fredy used to jump from the roof to the trampoline sending him skyward in a trajectory unknown. When I became a teenager I did the exact same thing. I would climb out my window onto my roof outside of it and jump from the roof onto the trampoline below. When we had an above ground pool I would complete this daredevil feat by bouncing into the pool to create the world's biggest cannonball! Granted attempting the pool jump was severely dangerous and stupid, but boy howdy was it fun.
My cousins and I spent lots of time on my roof when I was a teen and I never let any of the younger kids jump from the roof. Most of them were content with just sitting there. I always made sure no one horsed around on the roof or moved around too much. But we had a latter to get down to the ground and a window to crawl back into once you got your fill of the sloped roof experience.
So now my brother Fredy's girls are 10 and 8. One time they came over and I thought they should have the roof experience that my brother Marlon's kids received. They were both a little weary of being up so high, but their curiosity won out in the end. They spent about two minutes on the roof and got off. My brother was upset with me for letting them go on the roof, something that our nieces had done, something he had done himself!
My brother Fredy grew up in the 1980's aka THE LONGEST STREAK OF VIOLENCE AND SEX AND DRUGS AND RACISM IN AMERICAN CINEMA. He loves movies like The Terminator, Rambo, or The Running Man. All of these movies have indulge in violence to the point where you think you need to have a weapon and kill someone just to be cool. When I asked him if had seen The Hunger Games (another stylized violent movie not unlike Battle Royale, The Running Man, or Death Race in its concept) he said he could not watch that movie. I asked him was it because its rated PG13 so it wouldn't be bloody enough to satisfy his lust? He said no. He said it was because they kill kids. So what? Violence is violence. Killing innocent children is horrible anyway you look at it, but there are plenty of innocent adults who do not deserve to die either. If anything adults have more of an impact on the world around them if they died. They have met more people, done more things and touched more lives then any child ever has.
I think people are more upset about the death of child because children are just full of potential energy. They could potentially grow up and become anything, even the President of the United States. But most children will grow up to become something mundane like a salesman or an accountant who hate the president.
My sister-in-law got extremely mad at me because her 9 year old child waited 15 minutes to be picked up. I was only 15 minutes late because the child told me the wrong time to pick her up. Perhaps I shouldn't have relied on a 9 year old's perception of time? It's not like she has karate class every single week. Oh wait, she does! It's not like she was surrounded by adult teachers who know how to watch after a child. Oh wait, she is!
My sister-in-law said that if it was my child I would have been livid. Not really, people are late for things a lot. I understood that concept at a young age. I would wait to be picked up from school sometimes an hour depending on the circumstance. My biggest complaint would be that I was bored waiting to be picked up. However, I would be livid if someone who was supposed to pick up my child completely forgot to pick him or her up. That is complete irresponsible. Mind you, I was watching my sister-in-law's other three children at this time and no one was anywhere near danger even though we were working with knives (carving pumpkins).
In the end, I am not a parent. I do not have that bond when a piece of your heart and soul leaves your body. I cannot fully understand that connection, but I hope one day it happens. I just do not want to be a wussified parent who does not let their child experience any danger. Because if you don't let a child experience life, then they will never learn how to make the right decisions for themselves.
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