Kids need to play outside

Isn’t it hilarious that this is news…?

Now, get this, the article is about LETTING KIDS PLAY OUTSIDE: IT’S GOOD FOR THEM! 

This is news in the modern world of academia…?

News Flash: the world is run by complete fucking idiots. 

in other news, healthy food is good for you.

Is there such thing as healthy food anymore with Bill Gates buying up all the farms and using his new and improved enhanced-seeds and pesticides ?

You do know companies like Monsanto have been doing this since before bill gates was born right?

christ, just trying to keep this thread light-hearted and we jump right back into the bullshit 

YCMTSU    Some of these people have never eaten a scab and it shows    

One aspect of parenting that I think changed is letting your kid run around the neighborhood unsupervised. I blame the media for creating a panic in the early 1980's that there was a child abductor around every corner. Virtue signaling mothers then began trying to outdo one another on who was protecting their kids the most from this over inflated boogyman.

I was lucky, I grew up out in the country where ADVENTURE in nature was plentiful. Riding our bicycles and later riding our dirtbikes down to the local fishing pond or patch of desert where we had a track. Fishing, exploring, swimming...most of the time with a buddy but sometimes by ourselves beginning when maybe I was 8.

Can I swim across the pond? Can I climb to the top of that tree? Can I sneak up on that wild animal without it seeing me? If I jump off the top of the haystack and land in the pile of straw below will I be ok? 

These were tests of how tough we were. Pretending to be a soldier or explorer....BUILDING OUR MASCULINITY.

It is rare anymore just to see kids out riding their bikes, or skateboards, playing catch, anything outside.

Most houses in the neighborhood you wouldn't even know they had kids, they are mostly inside on electronic devices. 

I know we sound like the old grumpy men reminiscing about the old days, but those activities teach valuable lessons and positive (or sometimes negative) life experience.

The outside most of today's generation just does not get to experience. They live their lives through a 3"x6" screen with no actual face to face human contact.

Sadly it is often the parents that facilitate the bubble, taking the easy way out of raising the kids and encouraging new activities.

Hell, when we were kids we'd get home from school, change clothes and hit the door running.

Then when I got a hodaka 100, my folks rarely saw me at all.

Hahaa "we polled 1,000 top researchers to determine if water is wet. Stay tuned for results!".

Yep, I laugh sometimes at some pictures I have of me riding my 1982 KX80 out in the desert.

I still had my school clothes on (jeans, digital wrist watch, and polo style collared shirt), just changed my shoes for boots and put on a helmet. 

Could ride from my house, would often ride all the way out to North Scottsdale riding spots like 15 miles from my house. My parents had no idea where I was, they just knew I had to be home by dark.

Hell, one time they let us go "camp" under a tree out in the desert. Four of us like 14 years old rode our MX bikes, we didn't have shit to sleep on, but we thought it would be a good idea to sleep in the desert. And we figured it out on our own.

No cell phones, not even anywhere to use a pay phone. If something happened (broke my wrist once while riding all alone, run out of gas, etc.) I just had to figure out a way to get home. 

Do kids even build forts anymore?

My parents parceled off a patch of dirt off to the side of the huge garden mom grew for me to "play in the dirt". Dad had an old wood pile off to the side of the animal shed that had various sizes and lengths of old lumber. I was permitted to use anything from this old lumber pile. Dad let me use an old claw hammer, hand saw, tape measure and a coffee can of used nails.

From that I built a bad ass fort complete with dug out basement. I remember how cool the air in the "basement" was on a hot day.

I learned how to plan, measure and use my hands to build something. And perhaps feel gratification after the build was complete. Again, these were important things that we learned to BUILD OUR MASCULINITY.

That sounds a lot like how i grew up. Put work boots on and an old open face helmet and rode and rode, often probably further then my parents would have permitted but I behaved myself and it gave me a sense of exploration and adventure. I remember pushing my XR80 home miles once when i snapped a chain. 

When we were 11 or 12 a few of my buddies and i camped in a big 10 person tent down at the fishing pond. We used to catch carp, place the carp on the ground in front of the rear tire of our motorcycle and proceed to do a burnout until the carp was cut in half. Guts and those big ass scales stuck under the rear fender for days. 

No cell phones is right! I'm such a pussy now that i thought i was going to have a panic attack the other day when i went to town in my old pickup without mine. I had to give myself a "talkin' to", get my perspectives in order. 

My 3 year old loves being outside ,she doesn't even care or ask where to if you ask her to leave the house ,it's always yup.

My parents made me leave a note in the kitchen of where I was going.  Didn't always stay there, but that was the starting point if they needed me.  Fun times.

My group of friends and, I played hide and, seek. 
Limited to three blocks in our neighborhood but, we played it with teams. It was usually six per team and, didn’t stop until the entire team was found. We took it pretty serious. Dressed like ninjas or, in camouflage lol. Most of the time it was Friday and, Saturday nights. 

My grandparents had a cabin. Most of my summers were spent riding, fishing and, catching reptiles out in the desert. 
 

Don’t forget BB gun fights either 😂 

i'd probably consider myself and my wife as helicopter parents, as much as I loved riding bicycles all over the neighborhood when I was a kid, there is a 0% chance that I would give my kids the same freedoms I had. I don't even love them being at the front of the house unsupervised. Backyard (fenced) even if it's just an illusion of safety they can play all day if they want to.

We are very fortunate that my grandparents have a lot of land out in the country, where my kids can do kid shit, climb trees, chase cows, walk through creeks/ponds. For parents who do not have that luxury, I can easily see how their kids dont get a sufficient amount of outdoor play time.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt propped up by garbage articles and documentaries is why Monsanto has such a bad wrap.
Something "bad" about Monsanto is that they are extremely paranoid about their patents. This causes them to sue in every situation they spot patent infringement, including individual farmers that intentionally, or unintentionally misuse Monsanto products.
 


Outside of their role in limiting the amount of pesticides and herbicides needed on a field, GM products have:

Decreased the arable area needed to produce a certain yield
Decreased the amount of irrigation needed to produce a certain yield
Decreased the amount of fertilizer needed to produce a certain yield.

The Green Revolution is credited with saving billions of people from starvation. 
Like any technology, GM technology does not always produce the desired outcomes but its failures are dwarfed by its accomplishments.

The one trait that gets the most criticism, Roundup Ready. In order to produce the amount of yields U.S. farmers have seen in the past few decades, a revolution in farming has happened at many different levels. One of these was the introduction of glyphosate-resistent seeds. Glyphosate was less chemically-harmful than other pre-RR herbicides, leading to its wide-adoption by farmers once Monsanto had developed the RR-resistant seeds. Simply put RR seeds have been directly responsible for the decline in harmful chemicals that were being put into our soils by pre-glyphosate herbicides.

we have to force our 13 year old to go outside, and that's not me exaggerating. getting him to do literally anything outside is like pulling teeth. he stopped wanting to go to school because he had to walk, no shit, he even hates walking. if we let him sit on his ass in his room all month he absolutely would, no questions asked.

our 3 year old as long as it's not 2 feet of snow or raining, you will find him playing on the rock wall out back or somewhere digging with his toy tractors or imagining a dirt-bike track in the back yard. i've looked around the house and can't find him and i go out back and there he is playing in the mud butt-ass naked having a good old time.

i don't know where i'm going with this except every kid is different.  also there are some scumbag parents out there that will try to change anything that doesn't meet their opinion/directive.

Same. I'm very thankful to have had the privilege of growing up on a farm, no cable television, basically no video games until my late teens, an old dirt bike with a endless supply of gasoline and tons of timber and pasture ground to ride in. 

I am 39 years old and I feel my generation was the last to truly play outside. We could ride our bikes throughout the neighborhood, had to be within hearing distance of mom screaming dinner in the younger years, then a time frame to be home by. We could do whatever the hell we wanted and we entertained ourselves and stayed decently out of trouble. Kids today have zero clue what garden hose water tastes like or to let it cool off for a solid 30 seconds before taking a swig. All of that went out the window pretty quickly with cell phones. 

Luckily for my family and our son we live in Iowa. That kid loves being outside and the population in the entire state is less than the city of St. Louis. Our neighborhood is filled with kids running around and playing outside. Honestly the only fear is a kid with an electric scooter is going to get hit by a car. Those scooters are everywhere now and they ride them all over the street and not the sidewalks. 

We have 8 year old twins boy and girl (and a 21 yr old) and I am curious if you all with young kids have the same issue: 

Our 8 year olds can’t seem to do anything without my wife or I. IF we can get them to go outside they demand we come with, when we tell them to go outside and play basketball or something  they want us to play with them. When he rides his dirt bike he insists I ride mine..When we are in the house they are constantly on top of us..They never leave us alone. Like extremely high maintenance. Drives us nuts..

As a kid I never wanted to be around my parents..what gives?! 

My parents drove my sister and I to the Strip in Fort Lauderdale in the back of the pick up and dropped us off everyday with some dive masks,  fishing poles, a dozen donut holes and a 2liter of soda while they worked all day for years starting in elementary school. My parents built us a diving platform behind our house with gators lining the opposite shoreline. We were gone sun up to about 10 any non school day. There was an old school bus that drove around to each neighborhood that a kid could just jump on for free and it would stop at the mall, bowling alley, Waterpark, water ski park, arcade etc. You got a free call at each place to let your parents know where you were. Only an issue if you didn't call and your parents had plans and had to search for you but we lived. 

My 8 year old son will flat out tell you "I'm just not an outside person"  Once you get him outside though he'll play catch with the baseball or football for what seems like forever . I can not get him to ride a bike for nothing, he has no desire to learn 2 wheels ,I finally made him learn how to ride with no training wheels with the understanding that once he learns I'll never force him to ride a bike again . I told him it's no different then swimming ,I don't care if you do it but you have to learn how.

My step son was pretty needy when he was little. He grew out of it when he got a bit older. 10ish

 It was frustrating at times. I bought him a pellet gun when he was 9. Taught him how to shoot it. 
Adjust the sights, play with the scope etc. After he got comfortable with it, he’d stay occupied outside for hours on end. Granted it cost me a box of pellets each week but, it was money well spent. 

I think it just took finding  him something that was engaging and, a little challenging. Trying to hit those bullseyes 🎯 lol. I had targets set up all over the backyard for him. 

Im 55 . Was a normal kid in the 70s.  You guys know. Sneekin beers. Cigarettes. Staying out till midnight at 10 years old. Riding my xr75 on paved roads 10 miles to the nearest gravel pit to ride by myself in running shoes and a plastic football helmet 10 sizes too big. I have a 15 year old boy who is addicted to his phone. I force him to go skiing with me and the occasional hike. Me and my wife are the opposite of helicopter parents. I dont know if its genetics or his influences at school. He has freinds at school . Communicates with them by text. Rarley hangs out with them. There parents tell us there kids don't want to leave the house.  I may have answered my question. Its the new normal. My kid is happy so im happy 😊. 

There are ups and downs with this kind of stuff, cheaper easier to grow crops are great, but if you listened to Prados interview he talked about how the food in Spain just tasted much better than US food. Garden tomatoes, peppers, corn, strawberries, and grass fed beef do taste better. I was just pointing out that seeds with modified DNA have been around for longer than alot of people realize. Also, chemicals have gotten better, I knew some farmers that all died from cancer in their 60s in the late 90s and early 2000s, but their parents generation lived into their 90s. 

Back to the main subject. 

Going outside and touching grass is good for kids and adults! The US invented public parks starting with central park in the mid 1800's because they thought the industrial revolution was driving people crazy. 

Maybe my most old man opinion is that video games have done so much damage to modern society its hard to quantify. It's normalized combat, isolated many men and boys in theor rooms, made people desire to live a different "identity" than they are in real life because they can in a video game. I also think kids don't play musical instruments as much as they used to because they play video games now. Electric guitars used to be video games for teen boys. 

My kids aren't old enough to really be out on their own yet but when we are out in the woods I'll make a point to leave them alone for a while and just walk away to a place I can still see them but also let them play in the dirt on their own. I hope we can share a love of the outdoors together as they get older.

"most old man opinion"?!? 

Wtf early?  Ur barely 30!

Lolol 

Btw....I agree with you!...and I am old!

The sad part man, is that u have to watch ur children like that....... that's our perved world today.. 

I used to light out on my 1972 Honda sl100... everyone in a 25 mile radius knew my parents and my brother....if I had any trouble, I could go to any house gor help...

Can't do that anymore

.

Yep.

Everyone's mom in our neighborhood knew every kid.

We could get busted by all of them,  just as easily as our own.

Mom's had that network dialed in quite well.

(No pun intended)

And when one mom called out for her kid to come in for dinner, we knew we all needed to be getting our butt's home.