Red Rover

I love to listen to the radio in the car and lately a particular station has been talking about all the games that we played as kids that are now looked at as dangerous for our own children.  The main one being Red Rover.  I grew up playing outside, riding my bike through town, swimming at the river, playing kick ball, freeze tag and hide-and-seek and I turned out okay.  We had what is called 'free play'.  Our lives weren't scheduled down to the second and using our imaginations and playing outside was encouraged.  I can see how kids can screw around while playing red rover and clothesline a few kids here or there but are there that many children in America that are becoming severely injured while playing red rover that it has become a game that is now banished on at the school yard?  Dodge ball is another frowned upon game.  I mean come on people!  What is so bad about drilling your classmate with a ball?  LOL!  Really I don't remember it being that bad.  You just have to hit the person with a rubber ball not inflict pain or cause welts, however, I know a few of us left gym class with a welt or two on dodge ball day.

I feel like the same people who jumped off of bridges into rivers and used to sled on top of car hoods attached by chains to pick-up trucks are the same people who want their kids to live in a bubble.  During a radio show this morning they asked people to call in and share the games they played as children that some may deem dangerous today.  One caller said she and her friends played a game called Spears.  They'd form two teams and go out into a field where they'd pull these six foot tall weeds straight out of the ground and throw them at the opposing team.  If you were hit by the weed or it's spear-like root you were out.  Another caller said she and her brother used to use garbage bags as parachutes and jump off of a shed to see who could jump the farthest.  I'm really glad right now that my kids do not know that this blog exists!!!

Besides jumping off of bridges into a river and sledding on car hoods my friends and I used to see how high we could climb a tree or we'd climb swing sets and then walk across the tops.  A lot of kids do a lot of stupid stuff and that's just what kids do.  I've seen my 9 year old outside walking across the top of the swing set and of course I yelled at him to get down.  He also likes to explore the timbers behind our house and he builds forts in brush piles.  The other day he had his friends put him in a garbage barrel and push him down a steep hill into a parking lot.  These are the things I'm seeing!!!  What he is doing when I'm not around!

He loves to climb trees and jump off of stuff and sled down steep hills and see how fast he can drive his 4-wheeler (wearing a helmet of course).  My daughter on the other hand is not much of a dare devil.  She does ride a 4-wheeler and she sleds but she's a lot more careful.  She doesn't climb trees or build forts in brush piles.  Now my 4 year old son has been a dare devil since he was born.  He rode a toy car down our basement steps once, he's hopped in a wagon and rode it down a hill, he's climbed higher than I'd like him to climb and he's climbed out of my vehicle through the window before...fortunately the vehicle was parked in my driveway and not flying down the interstate.

Some of us may think that what we did as children was dangerous but ask your parents some of the things they did.  You might be surprised! Well that's my ramblings for today.  I'm going to run through my house with scissors now.