patrick.net

Call it Crazy says

2015 checklist

Does the first grader have an iPhone6, an iPad, a Facebook and Instagram account and a Gmail account?

Check, they're ready!!

Please add sexual harassment course, safe sex, and efficient drug use. There, now they're ready.

It's interesting that one of the measures of 1979 readiness was the kid's ability to walk to-and-from places on his/her own. The perception is that we live in so much more dangerous of a time, but apparently that isn't really backed up by data.

My motto is my kids can walk alone when they're too big to be picked up and tossed into a car. Yet, I remember walking to first grade on my own. It was no big deal. I remember taking all the glass bottles I had saved to the Seven Eleven and exchanging them for candy money... when I was six. I would never let my kids do something like that. But back then it was no big deal. I have no explanation, but I would feel like a bad parent if I left my ten year olds (almost eleven) home alone for longer than 15 minutes. I would feel like a bad parent if I wasn't picking them up and dropping them down to school each day.... and I certainly would feel that I'm not doing my job if I let them go out on a "walkabout."

Nowadays ready if they are redefining their gender every 6 months.

Strategist says

Call it Crazy says

2015 checklist

Does the first grader have an iPhone6, an iPad, a Facebook and Instagram account and a Gmail account?

Check, they're ready!!

Please add sexual harassment course, safe sex, and efficient drug use. There, now they're ready.

Plus the phone number of social services in case the parents threaten to spank them

Call it Crazy says

Does the first grader have an iPhone6, an iPad, a Facebook and Instagram account and a Gmail account?

If they do, it's probably the reason they can't find their way from one room to the next, let alone six blocks away, because these things all undermine skills.

P N Dr Lo R says

If they do, it's probably the reason they can't find their way from one room to the next, let alone six blocks away, because these things all undermine skills.

Yeah, because it's so had to walk and text at the same time!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/R8-W6o8Eu7c

turtledove says

I remember taking all the glass bottles I had saved to the Seven Eleven and exchanging them for candy money... when I was six. I would never let my kids do something like that. But back then it was no big deal. I have no explanation, but I would feel like a bad parent if I left my ten year olds (almost eleven) home alone for longer than 15 minutes. I would feel like a bad parent if I wasn't picking them up and dropping them down to school each day.... and I certainly would feel that I'm not doing my job if I let them go out on a "walkabout."

Because if any other parent saw them on the street by themselves, they would call the police and social services would be knocking at your door. Then the stigma of being a bad parent would stick to you forever. Other parents would whisper about you at the PTA meetings. You'd be a social pariah.

P N Dr Lo R says

If they do, it's probably the reason they can't find their way from one room to the next, let alone six blocks away, because these things all undermine skills.

Richard Branson the billionaire of Virgin Airlines said in an interview as a 7 year old driving home with his mother, his mother asked him to get out of the car and find his way home. Richard said he was "hopelessly lost" Eventually he did get home.

turtledove says

I remember taking all the glass bottles I had saved to the Seven Eleven and exchanging them for candy money... when I was six. I would never let my kids do something like that.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/L3dq9dxEf2c

I remember, as a kid, that I knew my way around my surrounding area. I knew my neighborhood like the back of my hand, anywhere within a six block radius I knew every back alley, slip-through-the-fence, know-my-way-thru-the-backyards way from point A to point B. Extending out from there, I could (sitting in a car) give directions on how to get from point A to point B for about a 5 - 7 mile radius. Cell phones were just coming into vogue when my kids were in their early teens. They would/could become so engrossed in the phones that they came to a point where we were less than a half mile from home and they had no idea how to give directions to get home (even though they had been on this route over 50 times). That was the point that I dis-allowed they to use the phones in the car. If the rule was violated, the phone was taken away (the horrors of it). It didn't take too terribly long before they knew their way around. We continued the no cell phone rule in the car and the kids ended up the better for it.

The best one, yet. First grade, Mission Viejo, CA. My brother and I had the chicken pox. I was six; my brother was two. My mother had to work. She left lunches in the fridge; told me not to go outside; and left me to watch my brother while she went to work. I was authorized to apply calamine cream on both of us, as necessary. If an emergency happened, the old lady neighbor was home and knew we were alone, so I was to call her if I needed help.

I can't say I remember my mother calling to check on us, even, though she probably didn't work a full day... You'll have to forgive me... I was six, so the details are a little fuzzy.

I remember feeling very proud that my mother had entrusted me with such an important job. I couldn't wait to show her how I took care of my brother, gave him lunch, cleaned up afterwards.

She should be in jail!

turtledove says

I remember feeling very proud that my mother had entrusted me with such an important job. I couldn't wait to show her how I took care of my brother, gave him lunch, cleaned up afterwards.

And there ya go...

or should we have a government agency nanny this subject and perhaps giver your mother some sort of subsidy like now...

komputodo says

Because if any other parent saw them on the street by themselves, they would call the police and social services

There was a recent Judge Judy episode about this. A lady called CPS wherever this was when she realized her neighbor had let her 7 year old visit the park across the street without supervision. The lady was suing the one who reported her but Judge Judy ruled that she had every right to call CPS and yelled at her for letting the 7 year old go to the park alone and she yelled at her like she always does. The mother could even see the child from her home but that didn't make any difference. He'll probably grow up a mollycoddle.

At lunch today it hit me. This is all a left-winged plot! Okay, I'm kind of joking, BUT... Notice how they keep wanting to raise the age of dependency. In your more liberal states, the age of majority for the purposes of child support tends to be 21... ACA says a kid can be on his parent's insurance until he's like a thousand years old... Government subsidies of housing and education have played a huge role in making both college and housing so expensive for kids that they will be living with us FOREVER... I can't quite put my finger on the grand plan... But I'm certain, it's a plot to retard the growth of children so they can remain children until they are well into their 40s.

The question is why?...

sbh, help us to understand. Have you all discussed this at your meetings?

mmmarvel says

That was the point that I dis-allowed they to use the phones in the car. If the rule was violated, the phone was taken away

You do realize this is child abuse?

turtledove says

But I'm certain, it's a plot to retard the growth of children so they can remain children until they are well into their 40s.

Imagine trying to take the phone away from a 40 year old brat.

P N Dr Lo R says

There was a recent Judge Judy episode about this. A lady called CPS wherever this was when she realized her neighbor had let her 7 year old visit the park across the street without supervision. The lady was suing the one who reported her but Judge Judy ruled that she had every right to call CPS

She did have a right to call CPS. The mother probably sued out of anger to take revenge and ended up making a fool of herself.
Jesus said "Love Thy Neighbor"

sbh says

it's easier to pay them minimum wage well into their 60s. And since they are by definition "retarded" they're almost certain to vote Republican.

That was funny. You do realize that you and CIC actually have similar senses of humor. Your vantage points are just different. I know, I know... what I'm saying is akin to profanity. In my book, however, you get a pass for being funny... even if you're a dumbass liberal. Not to worry, I will fix it all once we form our new religion based on the belief in global warming as God to bring the forth the apocalypse, thus creating fear and control of the masses and generating massive amounts of revenue in the form of tithing.... That's still on, right? Cuz, it's sort of the basis for my retirement plan.

I've just noted that you both seem to make jokes about the opposite sides of the same coin. You hone in on the same things, that's all. Perhaps it's why you aggravate each other so much.

It has to be democrat because of the predisposition to accept global warming dogma. Never forget, the plan is to make money, dear. Once you've accepted that whoever is in power uses the predominant belief system as a means to control others and profit then you can simply embrace the horror and get something out of it for yourself. I'm done demanding proof. There's more profit in faith-based systems. In fact, we should take a page from early Christianity. Our holy book should be published in a dead language (how about Cornish?), we should eschew proof, and it should be a sin for people to study anything that could disprove our beliefs. Did you forget our plan? I thought you, peterp, and I had it all worked out. ;)

TD said: I can't quite put my finger on the grand plan...
I think you hit on it already. It's all about the Education Industrial Complex.

EBGuy says

TD said: I can't quite put my finger on the grand plan...

I think you hit on it already. It's all about the Education Industrial Complex.

It really has gone sideways. We make a 13-year-old rape victims pay child support

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/02/statutory-rape-victim-child-support/14953965/

yet, our adult-aged "children" aren't expected to support themselves.

The left fights for this kind of stuff, but the results are exactly the opposite of what they claim they want. Who are the kids who are more likely to find themselves in such a situation (getting someone pregnant at the age of 13)? The majority are likely from poor, low education areas. They are unsupervised probably because either both parents work or they are living in a single parent household. The kids being hurt by these rules aren't your richies who know better and have watchful adults around them. It's going to be the kids who have the least support.

Now for the middle-aged kids living off their parents. Who can afford to maintain their kids forever and ever? These are going to be the richer families.

So, in this regard, we are moving toward a system designed to further suppress the poor and enable the rich. Well done!

sbh says

I love Cornwall! After having been there twice I'm absolutely devoted to Cadgwith. If you mention CIC within three minutes of such a statement you should be waterboarded and renditioned to Jordan. He's one of yours. Deal with him to your shame as you will, for humor or for instruction. He's a spastic abortion of common humanity. If you can get any use out of him you have my blessing, but I suggest he is best used as a crash dummy, for vivisection, or for target practice.

Now, back to business: our religion needs tithing, and science don't cut it. In America money is tithed by toothless bropappys. Liberals foolishly think that the value of a cause is based on the breadth of its thematic application. Noooo. Conservatives know that the value of a cause lies in its divisiveness.

Is that you Jazz? Long words make me dizzy.

turtledove says

But the idea of a kindergartener walking "four to eight blocks" alone? Crossing streets? Turning corners? Even though I suspect I did it myself, I can't get my head around it.

I know what you mean. I bet in CA child services will be all over that too.

It's a different world we live in today. 30 years ago you could do anything, but that was before the nanny state grew and society decided to over protect every single person from themselves.