Fla. 8-Year-Old Gets Traffic Ticket For Bike Mishap (irresponsible idiot parents refuse to pay)

"The Real Bev" wrote in message
...

But in this case the kid DID get caught. Sensible parents would make
him pay restitution, pay something additional for punishment, and give
him some extra punishment for being careless and getting caught.

Parents just aren't what they used to be...

Isn't that the truth. I had the pleasure of chatting with my mom about this
situation this weekend. She said she would have tanned my hide if it had
been me on that bike - something I already knew. She also had an interesting
tale about one of her local school districts. They were having problems with
kids beating other kids on the busses. So, they installed security cameras
on every bus. To make this an interesting social experiment, they also
filmed the parents reactions when they were called in for a parent-teacher
conference. Without fail, every parent defended their child when told that
their kid was being a bully on the bus. "My son would never act like that,"
was a common quote.

Imagine their reaction when confronted with a video tape of their little
brat being a little brat. At least all of them skipped immediately out of
denial and switched into
kill-the-little-brat-before-he-causes-another-problem mode.

We have been brainwashed. We have been taught the "feel-good" method of
parenting, which assumes that our kids never lie and always act like little
angels. It's time to be more than a little suspicious of what they do and
say. It's time to give them responsibility and expect them to live up to it.
It's time to punish them when they don't.

My kids aren't little angels. I love them dearly, but recognize that they
will try to manipulate their mother and I just to get what they want. Right
and Wrong aren't concepts they intrensically understand, they are concepts
that must be taught to them.

I'll be teaching them the rules of the road. If they want to jump dirt
mounds, I'll make sure they wear safety gear while doing it and make sure
the mound is nowhere near a road. There are lots of places in this story
where the parents failed to follow-up on what their kids were doing. They
just trusted the rug-rats a little too much.

-Buck

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:51:51 GMT, "Buck" s c h w i n n _ f o r _ s a
l e @ h o t m a i l . c o m wrote:

Parents just aren't what they used to be...


We have been brainwashed. We have been taught the "feel-good" method of
parenting, which assumes that our kids never lie and always act like little
angels.

We also aren't allowed to "yell" at our kids anymore; we've been told
that the proper way is to "whine" at them: "Tanner, PLEEEEEEEAAAASE
stop killing the cat..."

It's time to be more than a little suspicious of what they do and
say. It's time to give them responsibility and expect them to live up to it.
It's time to punish them when they don't.

"It Takes a Village" used to mean that, if you f***ed up while you
were walking home from school and did a little "harmless childish
vandalism", or jaywalked against a red light, the phone call would
beat you home and your mom would be waiting at the front gate with a
belt.

In the new America, "It Takes a Village" means "All you have to do is
to conceive the little brat, then your responsibility ends. The
village will raise it and pay for it".

"Rich Clark" wrote in message
...

"Trent Piepho" wrote in message
...
What makes playgrounds so much more dangerous now than 30 years
ago?.

Well, them and the gangs and the drug dealers and the other friendly faces
that have taken over so many urban playgrounds.

I wonder.

A few years ago, I went with my kids to an urban playground -- I had a
meeting coming up for a volunteer group nearby, and we were killing some
time before the meeting started. The playground was in what you might call a
marginal neighborhood -- some light industrial/warehouse type development,
worn-down rental apartments, and a reputation for junkies.

My kids, happy to see the playground before them, went running ahead into
the park, with their poky mom walking behind.

A group of kids who were playing on the playground ran up to my kids, and
said, "where's your grown-up? You can't come to the park without a
grown-up!" By the time I finally brought up the rear, I could tell that the
other adults there were checking me out, only more quietly.

It became clear to me that the neighborhood had made a claim to this
park.The kids on it were actively protecting the other kids, including mine.
The adults there were doing their job, too.

I realize some parks and playgrounds have been taken over by violence --
guns are just that much more prevalent than they used to be. But also,
people have worked to make sure that kids have a good, safe place to play --
even in on "urban playgrounds".


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm

Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky

I wrote:

Nice one, Lars! Focus entirely on the helmet. Completely ignore the
fact that the kid rode out directly in front of a car.

This is "Bike Safety, the American version."

Lars S. Mulford wrote:
Frank:

If you'd have read my post completely, you'd have seen that it had
EVERYTHING to do with the boy going in front of the car and getting tagged.

Let's look at your original post again. You said:

"I noted in the writeup that the boy had no helmet on. An 8yr old out
riding a BMX type bike, jumping dirt berms and stuff, and no helmet?
That is inexcusable on the part of the PARENTS to NOT enforce wearing
a helmet. To me, it shows irresponsibility. ..."

And you wrote:
" I've got two daughters, and from day one since they began riding
bikes, they associated helmet wearing with riding. Now when they ride,
they don't even think about it. The helmet gets strapped on and THEN
they ride... "


Now pardon me, but I somehow missed where you said "It's inexcusable on
the part of the PARENTS to NOT teach this child to respect the rules of
the road." And likewise, I missed where you said "I've got two
daughters, and from day one, they were taught to stop and look both ways
before entering a roadway."

In fact, I _still_ don't see where you say that. What I see is an
apparent flagrant violation of fundamental rules of the road, and your
comments fixating on the lack of a hat. As if a certified-for-14-mph
helmet would save a kid broadsided by a Nissan!

I repeat: "Bike Safety, the American version." It's all about the hat.

--
Frank Krygowski

The Real Bev wrote:

There's a general feeling that it's no longer safe for a kid to play
anywhere without an adult in close attendance. Damn shame, because kids
NEED to learn to be alone and unsupervised sometimes.

I agree. It's been several years now, but back when the local Safe Kids
chapter was working its hardest to make bike helmets mandatory, they
also had literature saying kids under age eight (IIRC) should NEVER play
out of eyeshot of a parent, and that they should NEVER be allowed to
cross a street alone.

I can only imagine that that Safe Kids spokewoman had hired help to do
the laundry, cook the meals, wash the floors, etc. Either that, or she
tied her kids down in front of a TV until she was prepared to carefully
watch over their play!


Every time I think "How silly can they get?" some safety freak sets a
new record!

--
Frank Krygowski

In article ,
Rich Clark wrote:

Somehow I don't remember quite so many stray bullets flying around down by
the swingset when I was a kid.

Maybe not as many, but we *did* learn to get out of the way of
them back then..... I'll never forget "Crazy Bob".



--
--
LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Did you know that 81% of North Americans cannot
taste the difference between fried dog and fried cat?

"Claire Petersky" wrote in message
news:73Rmb.35356$e01.66079@attbi_s02...

I realize some parks and playgrounds have been taken over by violence --
guns are just that much more prevalent than they used to be. But also,
people have worked to make sure that kids have a good, safe place to
play --
even in on "urban playgrounds".

Yes, and it's a good thing.

My intention was only to point out that when citing a statistic about "safe
places to play" and "unsafe playgrounds," it wasn't somebody measuring
excessive screw-head protrusion on the slide that was the focus of the
concern.

RichC

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:09:10 +0000, Frank Krygowski wrote:

Every time I think "How silly can they get?" some safety freak sets a new
record!

Ain't that the truth. The US seems to be paralyzed with fear, nameless,
unspecific, and ubiquitous.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | What is objectionable, and what is dangerous about extremists is
_`\(,_ | not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant.
(_)/ (_) | --Robert F. Kennedy

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:49:54 +0000, Papayahed1 wrote:

Back to bicycling--our school has a perfect attendance lottery-we give
away bicycles. It's been a pleasant surprise to see the number of
bicycles parked in the rack increasing.

That's great. It's so rare to see a school that even has a bike rack any
longer, much less one with bikes parked in it. I applaud your program.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or
_`\(,_ | that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not
(_)/ (_) | only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American public. --Theodore Roosevelt

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 11:52:49 +0000, Frank Krygowski wrote:

I repeat: "Bike Safety, the American version." It's all about the hat.

Frank does focus on this, but damn it, he's right. Too much of what
passes for bike-safety education could be summarized as "wear a helmet and
you'll be safe", which is absolute nonsense.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Let's not escape into mathematics. Let's stay with reality. --
_`\(,_ | Michael Crichton
(_)/ (_) |