Quote:
Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
Kids don't need:- designer clothing
- every toy under the sun
- their parents to be together in the same house (especially when they're only doing it "for the kids")
- a bunch of extra-curricular activities and classes
- vacations
- lots of other stuff
Kids do need:
- love
- attention
- books
- to be pushed with regard to school work -- and if their school is insufficient, they need you to give them additional work
- time to just play
- sports or some other physical activity
Everyone thinks that children are so fucking fragile. They're not. You can't completely hide the world from them and you'll never be able to protect them from everything. Likewise, you can't expose them to everything under the sun that you wished you had been exposed to and weren't (or were).
...
We've turned into a country where parents run after their kids trying to keep them from getting dirty, eating dirt, getting bullied, seeing nudity, seeing violence, getting their feelings hurt, etc. Betty") and freak out if they fall down even though it's clear they haven't hurt themselves. ... They have to learn to interact with other fucking people. They have to learn how to play. They have to learn that if they try to be too daring, they'll get hurt. Leave them alone.
And if your kid shows any sign of being different than other kids, they get drugged. ....
Kids are tough and resilient. ...People are stupid.
TM
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Agreed within limits. You left out a couple things we often take for granted, like food and healthcare, that kids need. They also need some level of discipline, order and consistency in their lives, and they need friends.
And on things like extracurricular activities: they need creative stimulation of some sort, but frankly if we don't organize it for them by schlepping them all day they'll figure out how to do it themselves. Music and art come pretty naturally.
And on sports and physical activity: they will find it if we let them, and I trust by setting up this category you are not suggesting that schlepping them to baseball, soccer, hockey, etc. is one of their primary needs.
By the way, I think Ritalin is overused and misused 80+% of the time, but there are times when durgs like Ritalin fall into the basic healthcare department, and are really very important. There are kids for whom it does wonders. There are also kids who have been turned into zombies for the convenience of adults.
