What will "they" come up with next??

[OhioJay]

Just wanted to vent a bit.

My nine year old son plays Little League baseball. The actual L.L. that you see every year on TV with the L.L. world series. Any way, some of the rules they have are a bit much.

For instance, on-deck batters may not swing a bat. Not near the dugout/bench area. Not inside the fence/field area! It's apparently a safety issue. However, an incoming pitcher may warm up outside the field area/fence. Isn't that a safety issue, too?

Players may not leave the bench/dugout area at any time, unless entering/exiting the field. Parents and spectators may, at no time, enter the dugout/bench area, or have contact with the player (an ejectionable offense!!). Can you imagine little Billy strikes out, and Grandpa walks over to him sitting on the bench and says "Keep your head up, maybe next time" and he gets ejected from the field area!!! Seems a bit much, and unneccesary.

Well, here's the big one...The other day, an umpire called time out and approached me and said "Coach, the sun flower seeds are not permitted on the field, or in the dugout area. " I told him I hadn't seen that rule in the book, and asked him to show me where it was. He says "It's not in the book. It's the commisioners rule, and we will enforce it". I asked why he had made such a ridiculous rule, and was told the sun flower seeds were a safety issue. They were a choking hazard. I said "Well, if the seeds are a..." and he with "Yes, gum too. No bubble gum is allowed." Seriously?

If we're all in so much danger, why don't we just go sit in the outfield and tell some stories!!! Why even bother playing the game?? If chewing on sun flower seeds is so potentially dangerous, why are we getting in our cars and driving to the game? That's a much greater safety hazard!! I just had to vent. Thanks.

 

[jimtoo]

Yep,, getting overprotective in most everything the kids do now days. I never wore a helmet when riding my bike. If I was bad or got in trouble, I got a spanking and did not get wear padded shorts either so it would not hurt. Did you ever play "mumbley peg"...that was a real knife and real dirt.

Jim M

 

[Bob&Patty]

Yep...everything is a "NANNY" state now. Next thing you know we will have to use a butter knife to shave.

 

[SJH]

I really do feel sorry for kids nowadays! They are mandating the "fun" out of everything and leaving them with very few options. In our county if kids walk the beach in groups it is considered "gang activity" and they are dispersed by local law enforcement.

 

[SmokeyBare]

A radio jock the other day reported a story the other day.

Seems a young boy was on the playground of a grade school, playing with other kids.

He used his fingers to simulate a play GUN...
Raising his thumb and pointing his first finger...
Taking aim and then pretending to SHOOT.
He might even have made a noise... BANG... don't know that for sure...
Doubt it matters what he was pretending to shoot. It was still pretend play !

His parents received a call from the principal of the school requesting the child be reprimanded for his actions.
The Principal explained to the Parents that kind of behavior is not to be tolerated at School.

Good Gosh... what next? Seems they want to remove the ability of a child to use his imagination...

Keep in mind, its our generation who is in charge these days... making these kind of rules. So very frustrating...

Marv

 

[SouthernNights]

Yep,, getting overprotective in most everything the kids do now days. I never wore a helmet when riding my bike. If I was bad or got in trouble, I got a spanking and did not get wear padded shorts either so it would not hurt. Did you ever play "mumbley peg"...that was a real knife and real dirt.

Jim M

man, I havent thought about that game in years Jim. But I think we called it something different but cant remember.
There is a short list of things that are different now than when I grew up -I think it's called "If you are over 40 you should be dead'

Found it. It's been arouind for awhile but still good.


People over 30 should be dead
Wednesday, 07/09/03 04:37 PM
Received from my Mom, who passed it on from one of her friends. Yeah, I was raised this way, I should probably be dead, too


According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We went outside and found them. We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them!
Congratulations!
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives for our own good....
Doesn't it kind of make you want to run through the house with scissors?


I really like the one about playing OUTSIDE all day.

 

[mjatwalker]

Yep,, getting overprotective in most everything the kids do now days. I never wore a helmet when riding my bike. If I was bad or got in trouble, I got a spanking and did not get wear padded shorts either so it would not hurt. Did you ever play "mumbley peg"...that was a real knife and real dirt.

Jim M

I learned to play that game with an ice pick.

 

[jmgratz]

Heck we used to break open thermometers to get out the Mercury. Then coat dimes and hit the Mercury with a hammer or roll it around in our hands. No wonder kids get so sick today. I remember my Mother (God rest her soul) making us drink after each other to get the German Measles, Chicken Pox and Mumps so we would get immunity. It worked too.

 

[dbylinski]

I learned to play that game with an ice pick.

Thank goodness we now have ice makers! It will make sleeping in your basement a lot safer!

 

[DMitch]

They keep mandating all this crap because we stand by and let them. We have become a politically correct country that has gone way way beyond anything that makes one bit of common sense.

Maybe if sunflower seeds are a safety issue, soon the ball will become one. New rule, ball must be pitched underhand, ya never know with some of these wackos.

We all need to stand up and put a stop to this non-sense.

 

[WilmanJim]

Hey Jim,
We used to call it Stretch. Got a 2" scar on my knee from one and wrapped it with a red handkerchief and black electrical tape.
of course Mom and Dad, god rest their soles, thought it happened on the farm.
Also had a 16 penny nail go through the foot parachuting off the old outhouse. Never had a tetanus shot until I went into the service.
So far still around for 63 years and hoping for plenty more.

Jim

 

[2psnapod2]

And we are all overweight due to us going by the food pyramid. The pie plate is going to fix us up.

 

[mmomega]

We used to put ours BB's in a charcoal bag to get them black and play cops and robbers or just shoot at each other for the **** of it. He who had more little black dots all over them was considered "dead", repeat until dark. We also used to walk barefoot over gravel with no problems, what were we thinking!?!?!

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

And we are all overweight due to us going by the food pyramid. The pie plate is going to fix us up.

My weight has nothing to do with a pyramid. Maybe a Pizza now and then though. My very first part time job as a kid was helping out on an ice cream truck. I don't remember my pay rate but I could eat my mistakes. That was the beginning.

 

[SouthernNights]

My weight has nothing to do with a pyramid. Maybe a Pizza now and then though. My very first part time job as a kid was helping out on an ice cream truck. I don't remember my pay rate but I could eat my mistakes. That was the beginning.

So you are blaming any weight problem on a happy childhood??? Interesting.

 

[mountain1]

You guys are looking at this entirely wrong. We need someone to keep us safe. It is obvious our parents did not love us and they actually needed help in raising all of us and they just did not know it. After all they must agree because as they became Grandparents the rules changed. My Dad chewed me out for waking my kids one Saturday to do their chores. "After all kids really need their sleep" My father did not know that until he was a Grandparent because he woke me every Saturday at 6 to get going on those chores. He also thought having a job while in High School was not good took away from studies. My first job was delivering papers before and after school different routes at age twelve. He didn't see anything wrong with that.

So you see as parents we do not know what we are doing but as Grandparents we learn a lot.

I am almost 64 and survide all the dangers of my childhood in central Illinois.

 

[ParkIt]

Going to repost the long list to fb since its already been posted by those of us over 50 in bits and pieces of stuff you didn't mention - like LAWN DARTS! lol

Stuff that would get my parents arrested now:
Had a shiny penny and hesitated at the wall socket. Dad sitting right there said "go ahead" with a smirk on his face as I put the penny in the socket.
Loaded guns in the house at all times with no locks or safe. We were brought up to respect guns of any kind, I still remember the bruise on my shoulder from Dad taking us kids out to shoot the 30.06 so we knew what hunting was going to be like.
Playing 'tag' with air pump pellet guns - and real pellets.
Riding the farm on a dirt bike with no helmet or other protective gear on.
NO stickers on any farm equipment aside from what brand it was.
Going to bed without dinner because we misbehaved.
Having chores around the house daily because that's what it takes for a family to live in a house.
Mom sticking her finger in a whiskey bottle and rubbing it on your gums when a tooth was hurting.
Dad giving you a *sip* of beer on a hot day just to see your face pucker up.
Being given coffee on a cold day/night instead of "expensive" cocoa.
Kool-Aid by the gallon.
Riding in the open back of the truck with my siblings sitting on sleeping bags on the ride to and from Grandma & Grandpa's house (3 hour trip one way).
Only going to the doctor for strep throat, measles or chicken pox and the kids we just played with had it.
...and plenty more...

The one thing to remember is putting pressure on *any* elected official that their bill or measure is stupid and we don't need it. We've survived this long and need to re-teach the younger generation if ya done screwed up, you pay the consequences, not someone else.

 

[Moose]

Yep,, getting overprotective in most everything the kids do now days. I never wore a helmet when riding my bike. If I was bad or got in trouble, I got a spanking and did not get wear padded shorts either so it would not hurt. Did you ever play "mumbley peg"...that was a real knife and real dirt.

Jim M

Was that the same as splitsees (spiltzees)? Where you throw the knif in the dirt, beside the opponents foot. If it stuck in the ground he had to move his foot over to the knife, then it was his turn, etc, etc?