Are we producing Marshmallows???

I guess I had bad parents(very little supervision). I (and friends) had so much freedom, I was out of the house everyday 7am to 8:30pm almost seven days week (only 10 yrs old). I feel sorry for kids today.

I remember you, all you private school kids had it easy

Ya’ll got nothing on me. Our school was only ¾ of a mile away, except it was up the shear face of a mountain. My pa would make me pull all of my siblings in a sled up to the peak,…..while holding all of their books. For lunch we’d eat the baked potatoes that had been keeping our feet “warm”

Are you really whining because YOUR kids are spoiled? Isn't that your job to fix?

Hey Wendell- I do my best but its tough to fight it when your not there. My kids are not spoiled but the system is always around. I came to pick my daughter up from school during their Holloween day. What were they doing, but giving the kids orange colored cupcakes. This was 11:30am just before lunch. My kids are close to nature and know what it means to work hard.

I just saw Antichrist- pretty good movie with Willem Dafoe

I bet all of you Billy Bad Asses talking all of your "I was allowed to roam the neighborhood all NIGHT with a f'in shotgun man!" stories are in your mid to low 20's, and haven't been around a child since you were one yourself.

Parents too protective? Perhaps at times. But consider the alternative: not caring. Maybe your mom and dad let you do whatever the hell you wanted, forced you to get your own ass to school despite hail/rain/hurricane/tsunami, and let you "learn your own lesson" from playing with gasoline and matches as opposed to keeping it from you to begin with - maybe they did these things because, frankly, they didn't care enough to spend any time with you.

Honestly, I think some of these comments toward kids (usually wealthy, suburban) who are viewed as "pampered" or "marshmallow-like" are frankly the result of some twisted jealousy - bitterness brewed by a shitty childhood, lack of relationship with parents (Get out of my house and don't come back till dark!), and the like.

When you all have kids, come back and post. Otherwise, consider this: being a kid once doesn't make you qualified to comment on raising one. So put your cowboy parent commments back in holster, ya hear?

I have kids, coach kids, was a kid, etc. If you too are a parent, then you must see the difference between the compulsively overprotective, what have now been deemed "helicopter parents," and caring parents.

The former intervene in every detail of their kid's lives, micromanaging academics, sports, even what used to be "free" play time / fun, everything. You have to have brought your kid to a birthday party where some overzealous mom has like 43 different activities planned on a minute-by-minute timeline, culminating in the kids singing "Happy Birthday" in a specific manner, and then handing out those silly little goody bags. If something is off, the party is ruined in her eyes, she becomes stressed, as if the other parents will think less of her, and her kid will be forever affected by not having a "fun" birthday.

The latter allow their kids to be taught and/or coached by other adults without undermining their authority, and let their children learn lessons, grow, fend for themeselves, play on their own, have fun, etc., in an age-appropriate, progressive manner.

You must have observed this trend as a parent. It has become a matter of trust, or lack thereof, not caring. There is an overwhelming mistrust by a burgeoning sector of parents across every aspect of their kid's lives, whether it's walking to school, how to teach a subject, how to coach a sport, even mistrust of their own kid to figure out what "fun" is, ad infinitum.

of course i've observed this. it drives me nuts. planning every minute of your kids play time, though, is quite a bit different than making sure my kid gets on the bus. the OP referred to marshmallow kids, not overscheduled or micromanaged ones.

I admit I took it up a notch there, but I think the basic issue is trust. The OP mentioned jr high school aged kids. So it comes down to whether a 12-14 year old has the maturity level in their parents' and/or school district's eyes to walk to a centralized corner to hang out while the bus arrives.

At the risk of jumping to conclusions, it probably all started at a school board meeting when a parent complained of the potentially dangerous situations that may arise from letting kids roam the streets, or possibly a law suit against the district for a kid who got injured or took a detour on the walk back to the house.

There are moms and dads who stand in the window, or even out in the driveway, and make sure the kid gets on the bus. Then there's the mom who holds the kid's hand at the bus stop and kisses him in front of his friends. Then there's the parent who goes to the school borad meeting and complains that their kid needs to be picked up at the end of the driveway. There are degrees of making sure the kid is safe, while also allowing the kid to grow and take on some responsibility.

Many parents are asking schools to drop football programs???? Okay, good luck on that one. Why don't the idiots protesting football take a walk into the cafeteria and focus their efforts on the travesty happening in every school lunchroom in America?

My neighborhood has the same shit. One bus stop for about 8 homes in each direction. when the bus shows up there are about 10 vehicles parked on the street because nobody can walk their f***ing kid 4 houses. Makes me sick to my stomach. Meanwhile, cancer and heart disease rates are skyrocketing exponentially and nobody hears about it because it's hidden from everybody including the media. Good grief, I should start a different thread for this.

Get real wrote:

Many parents are asking schools to drop football programs???? Okay, good luck on that one. Why don't the idiots protesting football take a walk into the cafeteria and focus their efforts on the travesty happening in every school lunchroom in America?

My neighborhood has the same shit. One bus stop for about 8 homes in each direction. when the bus shows up there are about 10 vehicles parked on the street because nobody can walk their f***ing kid 4 houses. Makes me sick to my stomach. Meanwhile, cancer and heart disease rates are skyrocketing exponentially and nobody hears about it because it's hidden from everybody including the media. Good grief, I should start a different thread for this.

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I agree with the OP. Not only is is evident with the shuttling of kids to the end of a driveway, but many parents are forbiding their kids to play contact sports at all. I can agree that this might have data showing injuries, even death from football. But, c'mon it happens in little league baseball too. 75 years from now, what will our great grand children live like? Will they have children and cuddle them all day? Will they be too protective to allow their children to go to school? I knew several kids who were home schooled. Each of them was not socially adjusted when they started coming to the school.

I just think it's something we need to think about, that's all. Afterall, children are busier today. However, there is a much larger percentage of overweight children now than 40 years ago. When will this trend end?

Parenting styles span the spectrum.

We've got kids locally that are smart, hard working, lean mean, wrestlers/runners. Their parents have them on a great trajectory.

We've also got kids that take the four wheeler to get the mail(maybe 100' from the house). The folks are obese, and the kids are well on the way to being heavyweights as well.

The pendulum does seem to be swinging in favor of the heavy eights. Society is losing it's couth. It's not just the kids.

Attending my class reunion this summer confirmed that.

Way too much weight on these 50 something parents and grandparents. Diabetic, on meds for BP issues,etc. However not bashful about questioning my motive for retaining only 11% body fat.

The problem is easy to ID. The fix? I've not a clue where to start.

Do you know what a marshmallow is?

I don't think "we are producing them."

I don't think this is just kids, it's adults too. We have a big parking problem at work which results in tailbacks around the buildings. The answer is to park about a mile away and walk which solves the problem. I do this now. But I think a lot of people are reluctant to do it. It is 15-20 mins walking at best (and it sometimes takes the same amount of time to do it in a car because the queue is so bad, so I don't think it's about time). As a side note where I live has no train station and the bus route takes 1 hour 30 because you have to change buses, else I would use those.

Well, walking to the bus stop is not part of an exercise routine.

But it is annoying to to have bus stops so close to each other the the kids can see each other.

It is just more efficient to consolidate bus stops.

I have seen this too and thought the kids should be able to walk one or two blocks. And these were pretty safe streets with sidewalks.

It's extra wear and tear on the buses, consumes more gas and holds up traffic.

As a college coach kids have really changed in the last 7 years. I no longer recruit talent and stats i recruit work ethic and character. My most successful boys come from conservative families that grow up in rural area's doing physical labor as a kid. I have little success with boys from liberal families because most of the time they just did not grow up tough enough. The best boys are the ones that had tough SOB's for fathers.

With female athletes minority girls raised by thier mothers tend to be the toughest and most motivated girls and become the best athletes. Also rural girls (farm girls) that usually come from conservative families that grow up working make very good athletes.

The athletes to avoid are the suburban kids with money. Suburban girls are the worst. They can make you life hell. No matter how good they are in high school i will not touch them.

This might sound bias. But it is what my records show.

this generation wrote:

As a college coach kids have really changed in the last 7 years. I no longer recruit talent and stats i recruit work ethic and character. My most successful boys come from conservative families that grow up in rural area's doing physical labor as a kid. I have little success with boys from liberal families because most of the time they just did not grow up tough enough. The best boys are the ones that had tough SOB's for fathers.

The athletes to avoid are the suburban kids with money. Suburban girls are the worst. They can make you life hell. No matter how good they are in high school i will not touch them.

This might sound bias. But it is what my records show.

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I know. I agree. I was a high school teacher for many years, and the most prolific statement ever made was by a phys ed teacher. He said " teenage girls are the most evil people on the planet." I soon found that to be sooo true. They will lie, cheat and stab in the back. At least with a teenage boy they don't try to use their body as a weapon. Too many girls that age suddenly get attention for their looks, and development. Some use it as a bargaining chip and expect to get special treatment.

I blame adults that give them the special treatment.

A young boy will always follow his pecker. That's been going on since the dawn of time.

But, today, most girls wear those 1/2 shirts that Brittney Spears wears that show her stomach. The problem is, many of the teenage girls have flabby and fat stomaches. Really? They think they look hot?

Their parents let them go outside like that?

It all comes down to the parents.

I'm so tuff now because I walked to school.

Pretty Much Common Sense wrote:

I'd bet a million bucks that these were kindergarten kids. 5 or 6 year old tykes who have no business walking 1/2 mile or so - alone - to their bustops, across busy streets, or in front of your maniacal driving. I'm sure the high school kids are walking, dude. Middle School too.

I used to do this when I was in Kindergarten. Seriously. Every kid in the neighborhood did. We never thought twice about it.

Times have really changed

I'm oooooold! And I'm not happy! And I don't like things now compared to the way they used to be. All this progress -- phooey! In my day, we didn't have these cash machines that would give you money when you needed it. There was only one bank in each state -- it was open only one hour a year. And you'd get in line, seventeen miles long, and the line became an angry mob of people -- fornicators and thieves, mutant children and circus freaks -- and you waited for years and by the time you got to the teller, you were senile and arthritic and you couldn't remember your own name. You were born, got in line, and ya died! And that's the way it was and we liked it!

Life was simpler then. There wasn't all this concern about hy-giene! It my days, we didn't have Kleenex. When you turned seventeen, you were given the family handkerchief. ... It hadn't been washed in generations and it stood on its own ... filled with diseases and swarmin' with flies. ... If you tried to blow your nose, you'd get an infection and your head would swell up and turn green and children would burst into tears at the sight o' ya! And that's the way it was and we liked it!

Life was a carnival! We entertained ourselves! We didn't need moooovin' pitchurrrres. In my day, there was only one show in town -- it was called "Stare at the sun!" ... That's right! You'd sit in the middle of an open field and stare up at the sun till your eyeballs burst into flames! And you thought, "Oh, no! Maybe I shouldn't've stared directly into the burning sun with my eyes wide open." But it was too late! Your head was on fire and people were roastin' chickens over it. ... And that's the way it was and we liked it!

Progress?! Flobble-de-flee! In my day, when we were angry and frustrated, we just said, "Flobble-de-flee!" 'cause we were idiots and we didn't know what else to say! Just a bunch o' illiterate Cro-Magnons, blowin' on crusty handkerchiefs, waitin' in lines for our head to burst into flame and that's the way it was and we liked it!