Comments on: Coddling Children Harms Mental Health

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:05:44 +0000

Ken,
Have you even read The Lord of the Flies?

G.A.Phillips,
Name one biblical principle that is at the foundation of our nation.

By: Anjin-San

Anjin-San — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:29:34 +0000

Hmmm well the bigger whack jobs disagree with me, which give me a feeling I am on the right track...

By: G.A. Phillips

G.A. Phillips — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:23:07 +0000

Yes Anjin-sin 30, 40, and 50 years ago when it was not illegal to teach and live by the biblical principles that founded this great nation and made it so strong. Godless is as Godless does, and you need to stop blaming any one else but your liberal self and your liberal kind. Dude like this rise in crime is Bush's fault cause he spends money on the war effort to fight our enemy? I think that it is that you society destroying Donkeykooks have had that much more time to misguide our youth, and if you say one more about the great things that Booty Bill Clinton did I'm going to start to cry.

By: floyd

floyd — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:21:36 +0000

Anjin-sin;
No, I don't see how the the federal government could take money from private hands,leave them without the ability to fully fund their own police protection, then give them back a fraction of the money and call it improvement.
Maybe when the tools you have mastered extend beyond crayons, we could discuss the cause of lawlessness again.

By: Anjin-San

Anjin-San — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:31:47 +0000

Could you explain how local crime could be influenced by the federal administration?

Well Floyd, let me get the crayons out and diagram it. Perhaps it could be the same way the federal govt. influences local health care or highway construction,via funding. Clinton gave local governments a lot of money to hire cops. Bush gives a lot of money to Iraq. Can you see how that might affect local crime?

Then there was the prosperity of the 90's, the dollars filtered down a lot further then they do now. If folks in less prosperous areas have a shot at earning a decent living and getting a bit of the American dream, they are less likely to commit crimes. Well, this decade has been bitchin for billionaires...

By: floyd

floyd — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:32:22 +0000

""There are lots of difference between the way things are now and the way things were 30, 40, or 50 years ago.""

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Dave;
Could it be the Father shortage? Or maybe a lack of principled men willing to stand for peace and security in their communities. The return of respect for fatherhood would surely improve safety in our streets.
Signed; Pollyanna

By: floyd

floyd — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:14:19 +0000

Ken;
Only for the weak minded unprincipled follower types.

Anjin-san;
Utopia returns in February 2009! Thanks for the good news!
Could you explain how local crime could be influenced by the federal administration? Bad immigration policy maybe?
Unfortunately,The danger is always there,it is our response to it that changes.As the Buffalo Springfield song says"paranoia strikes deep".
Maybe it is just too much media fear mongering?

By: ken

ken — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:51:46 +0000

Unstructured time spent exposed to the natural world develops everything from social to mechanical skills. Along with physical and mental health, this exposure encourages a true perspective of how people fit into the world around them.

Sure just like in Lord of the Flies.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 21:03:22 +0000

There are lots of difference between the way things are now and the way things were 30, 40, or 50 years ago. There's lots more people on the streets with obvious substance abuse problems. A lot more people with serious mental problems have been deinstitutionalized.

No doubt there's some good in both of those things. But it's not all good and one of the problems is that it's just not as safe out there for kids as it was back in the day.

By: Anjin-San

Anjin-San — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:56:48 +0000

This, despite all evidence pointing to decreasing crime rates.

Can we see some of this evidence? I have been reading that violent crime, which was significantly down in the 90's, has made a comeback during the Bush years.

I agree with the general theme of the post, when I was growing up in the 60's we roamed freely around town without fear for our safety. I used to take a but to San Francisco by myself starting around age 12 and hang out all day (Don't think I told my parents about that) and never had any trouble.

By: Boyd

Boyd — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:46:11 +0000

First, a minor digression in response to Anderson: as the father of five, none of them are any less precious to me than my eldest would have been were he an only child. I would have considerably more money had he been an only child, I must admit. :) It's a different world than when we or our parents were kids, and certainly our perception of the world as being less safe for children is different from those parents in past times. As noted here recently (I think it was here, my memory is calcifying with every passing day), we have more leisure time today than our parents did. We should use some of that time to focus more on our kids than our own parents did. This is far from a perfect solution, and could undoubtedly be done incorrectly, but it's worth considering.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 19:42:45 +0000

But parents have somehow gotten the impression that our society is generally unsafe and that there are large numbers of predators out there ready to pounce on any child who is unsupervised more than thirty seconds at a time and therefore shelter their kids from any unstructured activity. Unfortunately, it only takes one. I'm sympathetic with the post, but compared to what *could* happen, however small the risk, a little more prudence than we were used to may be understandable. N.b. that we tend to have smaller families now, fewer children, who are correspondingly more precious to us. I'm happy letting my 11-year-old be unsupervised around the neighborhood, at the movies, etc., because he knows how to stay (relatively) safe. But even at 8, I was more reluctant.

By: MarkT

MarkT — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:36:24 +0000

...and I've wondered the opposite: does this lead to adults that prefer libertarianism as they rebel against their constrained youth.

By: Stormy Dragon

Stormy Dragon — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:11:00 +0000

I also have to wonder if this trend leads to increased statism as it produces children incapable of functioning without external direction and who as adults substitute the state for their now absent parents.

By: floyd

floyd — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:39:50 +0000

BRAVO! Unstructured time spent exposed to the natural world develops everything from social to mechanical skills. Along with physical and mental health, this exposure encourages a true perspective of how people fit into the world around them.
A fine example is the pathetic abilities of the mechanical and structural engineers today, who come from school with only CAD and classroom and no "tactile" experience.
This overprotective and over-structured approach has resulted in a nation that raises children, but no longer raises adults!