It's not about flaming. It's about people who have grown up to be sheltered little babies. Schools in several states have recently banned the game of tag. I believe it's in Massachusets(where they give Ted " a blonde in every pond" Kennedy a drivers license) and a few others. Why? because someone may get injured and the school be held liable. What a crock! Kids get hurt being kids. Period. Scraped knees, bloody noses from a ball, bumps on the head and bruises. It's part of growing up. But no! It's better to raise fat, lazy, video game addicted, cry babies. Usually the result of parents who were raised on the advice of Dr. Spock and coddled and cajoled into doing something instead of given a good kick in the rear end. Are there kids out there who are mature enough, physically able and intelligent enough to get an advanced dive rating at 12? Absolutely! Come to any rural area where they are raised on a farm and are driving tractors bigger than your car at 10. 12-14 yr olds raising and handling large livestock. And I mean big like 1500lb steers and draft horses. They have had maturity and responsibility as part of growing up from the time they could walk. Not the fat, lazy children of over-indulgent parents who cannot even change a tire on their car, or mow their own lawn. I've seen kids at 12 who are much more responsible than 30-40 yr old yuppie punks who have never done a days worth of honest manual labor. Kids do not need to be sheltered. 8 yr old tee ball players do not need batting coaches. They need other 8 yr olds in a vacant lot with a bat, ball, some gloves, and pieces of old tire for bases and no parents who think a little league game is a fashion show and the world series all in one. I grew up in the late 60's- early 70's and in spite of the hippie crapola of time outs and being friends with your kids instead of parents, I had parents who expected respect, doing what I was told when I was told, and disobedience or backtalking was met with a swat instead of a "that's not nice we have to talk about your behavior". As a result I worked in our grocery store at age 8, by 12 I was cutting meat on a band saw, I got my first shotgun at 11, I bought my first high powered rifle with my own money at 14, was in the top 2% of my class in high school, when I moved out at 18 to go to school I never moved back in even though there were some hard times. I regret not going into the military and believe the draft should be brought back. Two years of service before any type of college should be mandatory. Too many kids are brought up to be weak and believe that they deserve what they get instead of earning it. There are good, mature, responsible, kids out there. But due to this new age crap and government interference they are a dying breed and we will be sorry for it in the future. Let them be themselves, give them some room to grow and play. Stop micromanaging their lives and allow the scrapes, bruises, and bumps. They will be happier and healthier.
