Have we turned our children into wimps?

[BarkingGhostar]

Actually, I do not think the problem began out of the womb. It is all genetics. But I am willing to just as easily blame bad parenting, too.

 

[sportage]

Sounds like sour grapes to me.
Lets face it.
If you had iPhone, and xBox back in the 50's, 60's, 70's or even 80's, and if your parent asked you to go out and shovel snow, you'd reply as kids of today reply.
"Go Fuck Yourself, mom. I'm on level 15".
Any more questions? I didn't think so.

 

[ninaholic37]

So, you became a lazy wimp when you became an adult.

That's what I was thinking too. OP has almost 5000 posts in 2 years on this "social media" site that uses technology.

Sadly I think this trend is a normal evolution though. There was more hard labor, farms etc. in the 1800s and earlier 1900s then they brought out the assembly line then automated more and more things, people want more convenience, live luxuriously while having to do less, etc. Humans will probably end up like those fatsos driving around in their moving platforms like on Wall-E eventually

 

[lxskllr]

Maybe I mean an 1/8 acre?

I really don't fucking know. What do I look like, an acreologist?

I was referring to an average-sized lot that you would find a run-of-the-mill suburban home built on. The kind that a kid who's not a pussy can mow in like an hour, maybe hour and a half, tops. If I was 13 or 14, I would find that to be very much worth 20 bucks.

You were right. .25 acre with a push mower is gravy. You may or may not find someone to do it for $20. Everyone wants to be paid as an engineer to do anything more than get out of bed, and inflation has gotten out of control. I'm constantly surprised at what people pay to have trivial work done.

 

[balloonshark]

You were right. .25 acre with a push mower is gravy. You may or may not find someone to do it for $20. Everyone wants to be paid as an engineer to do anything more than get out of bed, and inflation has gotten out of control. I'm constantly surprised at what people pay to have trivial work done.

I call it "trickle down greed".

When I was a kid we had chores that we got paid for. Each chore payed a different amount. We were responsible for cleaning the entire upstairs including making our parents bed, cleaning the bathroom, dusting, sweeping, litter box and of course our own rooms. We even got penalties if we left on a light. We would put some of that money in a savings count and you could actually see it grow. Try that nowadays :\

 

[Rakehellion]

Have we turned our children into wimps?

Yes, without a doubt. And now they're wimpy adults.

 

[Mixolydian]

Hard to say. I think priorities have changed more than anything else.

 

[Sonikku]

But it's cold outside.

 

[DrPizza]

You were right. .25 acre with a push mower is gravy. You may or may not find someone to do it for $20. Everyone wants to be paid as an engineer to do anything more than get out of bed, and inflation has gotten out of control. I'm constantly surprised at what people pay to have trivial work done.

1/4 acre with a push mower on a warm day is a lot of work. That's over 10,000 square feet. Easily worth more than $20, especially if the kid is providing the mower, fuel, and maintenance on the mower.

I agree though - hard to find kids who are willing to do any physical labor. I have a small farm. During the summer, when I go on vacation, I have to find someone to feed the animals. Pour out 50 pounds of grain into feeders, empty and scrub (with a long scrub brush) three large water buckets - there are float valves in them, so they'll fill up automatically. And half a bale of hay to the bucks. That's it. $25 per day, $200 for 8 days. It's pretty hard to find kids willing to do it (who are willing to do a good job, for what little there is to do.) 20 minutes of work.

 

[feralkid]

I don't have children. When I was younger I shoveled snow to make extra money. In the summer I cut lawns.

pics or it didn't happen.

 

[feralkid]

inflation has gotten out of control.

Are you serious?

We're more worried about deflation these days.

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21627625-politicians-and-central-bankers-are-not-providing-world-inflation-it-needs-some

.

 

[manimal]

my 5 year old triplets did 4 hours of real Gymnastics today and are now getting a lesson in Ju-jitsu. While we will be playing with dolls and GI Joes later they are far from wimps.



My son just reversed from guard to top control on a kid 4 years older than him. So proud!

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Fun Fact. Your seniors probably though the exact same thing about you old farts.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaints-about-young-people-ruining-everything

The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?

...[The screen artists'] beauty, their exquisite clothing, their lax habits and low moral standards, are becoming unconsciously appropriated by the plastic minds of American youth. Let them do what they may; divorce scandals, hotel episodes, free love, all are passed over and condoned by the young... The eye-gate is the widest and most easily accessible of all the avenues of the soul; whatever is portrayed on the screen is imprinted indelibly upon the nation's soul.

... see the simpering little beau of ten gallanting home the little coquette of eight, each so full of self-conceit and admiration of their own dear self, as to have but little to spare for any one else... and confess that the sight is both ridiculous and distressing... the sweet simplicity and artlessness of childhood, which renders a true child so interesting, are gone (like the bloom of the peach rudely nipped off) never to return.
​

 

[Mai72]

Now days if a kid tries to make money shovelling driveways or mowing lawns they get charged for running an unlicensed business. Good luck trying to run a lemonade stand, now you're getting into food safety regulations too. May as well get caught trying to sell weed. Pretty sad the bureaucracy and oppression these days, even towards kids.

If they want to have fun and go tobogganing instead? They're starting to ban that too in lot of places.

Snow storm and want to go build a snow man or snow fort? The government might shut down the whole city and make it illegal to be outside.

No wonder kids just play with their phones now days. Anything else might be illegal, and with enough cop brutality videos out there to show what happens when you do something illegal they rather not take any chances.

Children have been turned into wimps thanks to the government... and really, they probably did on purpose. Wimps are less likely to fight back against more oppression as they get older.

We just had an issue in NJ this past week with 2 teens who were handing out flyers to neighbors to shovel their snow. They got shut down because they didn't have the proper paperwork. It really is sad when you think about it.

Peter Schiff said it perfectly. You will have an easier time opening a business in China than you would in America. That is really troubling.

 

[brianmanahan]

 

[bradley]

I also notice a dramatic decrease in park usage in New York boroughs other than Manhattan. You see a smattering of parents with children on swings and some Asians appreciating the parks system, but nothing like the past.

I believe the change occurred in the mid-nineties with the advent of the Internet, powerful home computers and entertainment systems, which also seem to correlate with dramatically reduced crime rates.

Most children come directly home from school to their homes. It's also much rarer to even see kids playing in the streets, much less in the parks, and/or shoveling snow or cutting lawns for money. I believe the media plays an integral role in the creation of such fear and dissent.

 

[lxskllr]

Are you serious?

We're more worried about deflation these days.

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21627625-politicians-and-central-bankers-are-not-providing-world-inflation-it-needs-some

Oh no! You mean things won't perpetually increase? How is that possible when we have infinite resources?

 

[TheVrolok]

Teenager shoveled a buddy's driveway last week for a few bucks. Shrug.

 

[feralkid]

Oh no! You mean things won't perpetually increase? How is that possible when we have infinite resources?

"Infinite resources" ???

You seem rather confused about how things work.

Did you read the article?

Economics 101.

 

[oobydoobydoo]

"Wimpy" or just fat and lazy? They go together.


When 1/3rd or more of children are obese (not just overweight, although many are that too) of course they aren't gonna be as tough as the kids who were around in the 70s/80s/90s..... they're fatter, what do you expect?

 

[MongGrel]

I also notice a dramatic decrease in park usage in New York boroughs other than Manhattan. You see a smattering of parents with children on swings and some Asians appreciating the parks system, but nothing like the past.

I believe the change occurred in the mid-nineties with the advent of the Internet, powerful home computers and entertainment systems, which also seem to correlate with dramatically reduced crime rates.

Most children come directly home from school to their homes. It's also much rarer to even see kids playing in the streets, much less in the parks, and/or shoveling snow or cutting lawns for money. I believe the media plays an integral role in the creation of such fear and dissent.

There is also the whole thing where parents get arrested just for letting their kids walk to a park unmonitored these days.

You can't just turn your kids loose for pedophile fear etc like it used to be.

Everything is monitored these days it seems, hell we used to take off into the woods with BB guns/Minibikes/etc and disappear for a good part of the day on a regular basis 45 years ago.

I personally believe it's repressing the ability to behave and think on your own to a large degree.

I work with a couple mid 20 guys who have kids, and I have to just bit my tongue a lot on how irresponsible and foolish they seem to be to me.

It's like mentalities in general have gone straight down the tube.

Probably has to do with that over population thing in general people used to speak of and doesn't seem to be touched on a lot these days.

Is a pretty big elephant in the room in general.

 

[lxskllr]

1/4 acre with a push mower on a warm day is a lot of work. That's over 10,000 square feet. Easily worth more than $20, especially if the kid is providing the mower, fuel, and maintenance on the mower.

So 100'x100', or 34 paces by 34 paces; about an hour of work. How much should stupid work pay? $20 an hour tax free is good money unless you expect to be paid like an engineer for doing a mule's work.

 

[pontifex]

Pics of a kid mowing a quarter acre with a pushmower for $20 or ban.

a 1/4 acre isn't much. Unless i'm not thinking correctly, you should be able to do that in no time. I own an acre of land and I think about at least half of it is grass. I mow that in about an hour with a push mower and I'm a fat lazy fuck.

edit: found this photo of a 1/4 acre lot - http://www.sunnyland.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/image005.gif
What the fuck are you doing if that takes you an hour to 1.5 hours to push mow? Unless you're maybe you're using this: https://reelmowerrally.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/p1050360.jpg

from about 12 to 15 or so I mowed lawns every summer. at one point I think I was mowing 5 lawns a week or every other week. Some were fairly small, like small town lots and 1 was a multi-acre property that my dad and I mowed (sometimes sister would help out). Dad ran the riding mower and I ran the push mower. They paid us $40 that we split.

The smaller lots paid about $5-10 each visit.

 

[cubby1223]

I don't have children. When I was younger I shoveled snow to make extra money. In the summer I cut lawns.

And when teens do try these days neighbors call the police to stop them
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...g-snow-shoveling-cash-run-afoul-law/22454761/

 

[DAPUNISHER]

my 5 year old triplets did 4 hours of real Gymnastics today and are now getting a lesson in Ju-jitsu. While we will be playing with dolls and GI Joes later they are far from wimps.



My son just reversed from guard to top control on a kid 4 years older than him. So proud!

Bitch, don't be leaving out important details. Which sweep? Sit-up, hip bump, flower, scissors, or what?

And triplets? I do not know where you find the energy to type with 3 5yr olds to keep pace with.

And it's action figures, not dolls.