Why Do We Judge Parents For Putting Kids At Perceived — But Unreal — Risk?

Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 8 months ago to Culture
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"Children need to explore and experiment and be on their own sometimes in order to develop independence and responsibility and self-efficacy. By keeping them under our direct supervision at all times, we sacrifice that, and we narrow their world in profound ways."

"Here's an analogy: Imagine that parents suddenly have a phobia that their children are going to fall down and hit their heads and die while walking, running, climbing or playing sports. When such an injury or death happens anywhere in the country, it is covered 24/7 by the media; shows such as CSI: Head Injury Unit and Law and Order: Running and Falling Down draw big audiences. Some parents decide that just to be on the safe side, they're going to require their kid to stay in a wheelchair all the time. Gradually this practice becomes so widespread that it becomes standard, and schools and camps start requiring all children to be in wheelchairs at all times for safety reasons. Eventually, it becomes so unusual to see a child not in a wheelchair that people start calling the police when they see a child walking around, and parents are charged with criminal negligence for allowing their child to take such risks."


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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 8 months ago
    When I had children, they were supervised to an extent, as they learned to take care of themselves more and more freedom was allowed as their common sense and sense of right and wrong grew. In my day, there was little homework compared to today. As soon as we got home, we'd be gone until supper time. When a couple we knew was over attentive to their youngsters, we would taunt them wit, "Hey Sam, when are you gonna take them out of the wrapping paper?"

    Every generation has seems to get more and more protected until you find a kid standing alone looking puzzled because someone forgot to tell him what he's supposed to be doing.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Oh...I've done plenty of research. I've been in the middle of research groups so well known that I don't name them here (because you'd get all wound up). So calm down a little. My premise is that more die from the vaccine than the illness it's supposed to prevent. I am sorry if that bothers you. It bothers me too.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    PC isn't anything new per se, in that you are correct. Just like its underlying principle, it's nothing more than a fancy name for deception. Allow me to clarify slightly, however, as I may have under-emphasized the fullness of the deceit present in today's PC world.

    Racism. Racism is inherently seeing someone as lower than you are because of appearance. Followers of political correctness attempt to blame others for being racist when they in fact harbor deep bias and resentment - especially toward blacks. See Dinesh D'Souza's latest "Hillary's America" for a very eye-opening expose' on the Democratic Party. If you can remain a Democrat after seeing the history of racism in the Democratic Party and how that history continues today, you can in no way call yourself an Objectivist. And I'm dead serious here.

    Honesty: spot on. PC'ers are dishonest because they choose to adhere to the worldview that their perception is and determines reality rather than the other way 'round.

    Religion: It isn't that people don't get to choose their religion, it is that PC-ers view religion itself and the underlying standards thereof as if they are constructs of man rather than God. It's inherently contradictory - regardless of one's view of religion. If you believe in God, you don't also get to believe that man gets to overrule God when God's rules are inconvenient. It isn't in forcing people to choose religion, it's in the way that religious mores are adopted and preached.

    Education. It's far more than a cultural bias. It's an outright attempt to control and indoctrinate based on the PC-ers' fantastical view of the world. Common Core is the ultimate in PC education. In mathematics, the method by which one solves the problem is now more important than arriving at the correct answer. Also in mathematics, if one doesn't use the most obtuse, ridiculous methods for counting and solving math problems, one is graded down - regardless the fact that standard methodologies are at least 10x faster and more intuitive. In History, teachers no longer teach concepts like the Constitution or the American Revolution, but now spend more of their time teaching about all the imagined wrongs perpetrated on other nations by America. In English, instead of reading great works of literature and poetry with an emphasis on traditional values, students are now forced to read modern-day stories espousing progressive mantras such as homosexuality, liberation theology, and recreational drug use. I can go on and on. I have several children in the public schools and their homework just makes me want to scream sometimes.

    Journalism. Again, it's far more than mere bias, it's open dishonesty. It used to be that journalists reported on what was going on regardless of who was involved or being exposed and regardless of whether or not it played into what was acceptable to the elites. Of all the facets of life, journalism is the one most affected by and thereby reflective of what effects the nonsense of PC has had on our culture. No longer are journalists willing to skewer any political office-holder, now they openly take sides, frequently choosing to ignore even major stories (like the Clinton Foundation's pay-for-play with the State Department) in favor of minor stories like word-mincing or nude exposes of candidates' spouses.

    The problem is that PC should not be a common behavior! It shouldn't be an acceptable behavior at all - let alone the one by which a nation founded on the principles of equality, property rights, personal responsibility, and opportunity is run! The PC mindset is a mindset of willful deception and the propagation of deception.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thanks for the long msg. On many of these the non-PC and PC versions sound the same.
    Racism is treating people differently because of how they look. The PC-version is entitlement and oppression. Those are similar. Maybe you're saying the PC-version dwells on racial identity politics. That's something I'm strongly against.

    Honesty In your view PC = dishonest.

    Religion: PC people appoint themselves to be judge and arbiter of religious issues, you say, whereas no PC look to a third-party. I am very PC about religion by your definition.

    Education - I don't understand, but I think you're saying PC is letting your cultural biases influence your view of reality. By this definition, almost no one tries to be PC, but everyone is a little PC. The same is true about your view of Jouranlism

    "to ignore reality and to instead insist that reality is what one wishes it to be"
    This is a common behavior. I think we're adapted to fall into this trap unless we use critical thinking. PC, by this definition, is ancient.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Please do a little research when you make idiotic statements like in your first sentence."
    Abaco knew a healthy 15 y/o who got sick and died after receiving a vaccination. I don't know if it was causal. He does not accept all the anti-vax paranoia out there, but he researched the issue and came to the opinion that vaccines are over-used.

    I had both my kids get the full recommended schedule of vaccines because I don't agree with his opinion. But I don't think he's being idiotic about it.
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  • Posted by lrshultis 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Must be eternally vigilant, so know your enemy lest you get snuck up on when you are not looking.
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  • Posted by lrshultis 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Please do a little research when you make idiotic statements like in your first sentence. Just look at a little history, though the your all government is bad paranoia will keep you from this link:

    http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-dise...

    And look up how things went when religious beliefs stopped the vaccination programs in some African countries.

    Besides the 1 or so per 1000 death rate from measles, there were other not so nice things that could happen, like blindness.
    Let me know if you find any info about death from the vaccine that comes anywhere close to the death rate from measles.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I guess I'm in good company at least.
    About the only "trans-human" like improvement I would be tempted to employ is a USB from the right side of my brain direct to the keyboard or perhaps we might be able to do that with manmade quantum entanglements between the mind and the screen.

    You'd only need to think and it will be written...on second thought, maybe that's not the best idea after all...laughing...
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  • Posted by $ dballing 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    All of the writers I know are definitely their own worst critics, if that's what you mean.

    I definitely relate to you "the best version was somewhere between my brain and the paper/keyboard, at which point I spend some time usually trying to recapture what I lost in translation (sometimes successfully, sometimes not).
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hmm, are writers extra hard on themselves or to the conscious is it just a normal regret that comes with the territory.

    Personal question: do you get competing versions of a story, a thought or just the articulation of it, in your head prior to, during or after writing?
    For me, it gets confusing and often the best version gets lost in translation from the mind, brain and pen to paper. I'm always second guessing myself.
    That's why I wrote my first book...just to prove to myself I could do it and remain consistent. 100K sold must say something although I remain unconvinced.
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  • Posted by Maritimus 8 years, 8 months ago
    The basic errors of that thinking are that it is one short step for conceiving the existence as too dangerous to live in and that it negates the individual's right to freedom and pursuit of achievement and happiness. In short, it is an irrational idea.
    EDIT: correct a typo
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 8 months ago
    Overprotected children aren't introduced to life's hard lessons: good judgment is the result of experience, which is the result of bad judgment. Without discovering the result of bad judgment through minor scrapes and bruises early, the development of intelligent exercise of caution is hindered. This delay can lead to catastrophic results through reckless behavior later in life.

    There are children that are naturally prone to risky behavior, while others are cautious by nature. I was one of the latter, and had far more liberty than my comrades, who were mystified that I had my own house key, no curfew, and allowed to handle my own finances while still a young teen. My brother was quite reckless, and needed close supervision, which my parents diligently provided, much to his frustration. Parents should be allowed to make such decisions, as the state tends to a "one size fits all" approach, treating all children as stupid and reckless.
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  • Posted by dukem 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    As a child in the South of the late forties and early fifties, I have those memories, and they sustain me now when I see what has happened and what is going to happen.
    I recall the integration of the schools in the mid fifties, and how the adults worried about it and the kids just accepted it, and there were few problems where I lived.
    Castigating the Fifties is a spectator sport now, but I am so glad I grew up then and have my head screwed on straight, to recall a phrase.
    One does not miss freedom until it is gone (said lots of ways), and I dearly miss it. And will continue to miss it as we continue losing it.
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  • Posted by wiggys 8 years, 8 months ago
    today we in the usa have people that we pay other wise known as civil servants that are looking over the shoulders of people who choose the be parents to make sure they are doing things the way some other civil servant has described in a manual on how to raise children. GOVERNMENT intervention one more time.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Political correctness exists. It's the attempt by liberals to change the definitions of anything historical they disagree with. Why? Because liberals do not believe in universal standards. They want to be able to make things up as they go along and only apply standards when it benefits them.

    Examples:
    Racism. Racism by any objective standard is treating someone else differently simply because they look different. Racism by PC standards is white entitlement and black oppression. It is the cause of the BLM movement. Real racism was the beginning of the labor unions, who were facing competition for road construction contracts. Real racism was the beginning of abortion and Planned Parenthood via Margaret Sanger.

    Honesty. Honesty by any objective standard is equating reality with reality. Honesty by any objective standard exists regardless whether or not there is a law to punish dishonesty. Honesty by PC standards is quite simply if you don't get caught, it's okay. And it's not even that, really, it's whether or not you get convicted. Honesty by PC standards is embodied in the Clinton Foundation.

    Religion. Religion by objective standards means actually living what you believe and believing in universal truths. Religion by objective standards involves a third party as judge and arbiter of truth. Religion by PC standards is where people appoint themselves as judge and arbiter, twisting and changing their views based on whatever happens to be popular or seemingly beneficial at the time.

    Education. Education by objective standards means the process by which one acquaints himself/herself with reality. Education by PC standards is nothing more than picking and choosing which information to present as reality, relying on the ignorance and subservience of the student. Education by objective standards means allowing people to independently confirm truth, knowing it to be what it is. Education by PC standard asserts the stance of the ivory tower and that all knowledge must be disseminated at the benevolent whim of the elites.

    Journalism. Journalism by objective standards mean reporting on what happened. Journalism by PC standards means selectively choosing to ignore stories that don't match with one's personal views. It also means presenting editorial as "fact". The worst cases of PC journalism are when the news purveyors actually ignore the truth and present bald-faced lies as truth. This is what the mainstream media has largely devolved into.

    To summarize, to be PC is to choose to ignore reality and to instead insist that reality is what one wishes it to be, not what one is. To be PC is to engage not only in self-deception, but to then present that deception to others.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Nice response...sounds like it comes easy to you, you've had much more success and practice than I.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Theiy built their own nightmare. Now it's hovering over their life like shadow. People deserve what they asked for. I have no pity for school administrations
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  • Posted by $ Snezzy 8 years, 8 months ago
    We put little children up on our ponies for birthday parties. We believe that horses can improve us all, and that a pony ride at the age of 3 or 7 is a good way to get started in horsemanship.

    We have noticed that although some private schools and church-run daycares will invite us in to do rides, nearly no public schools want us at all. Apparently they are afraid that something will go wrong, that someone will claim that a child got hurt.
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  • Posted by $ Snezzy 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If you met Bill C, you would like him. He is very good at being likable.

    If you met the person who helped us on our farm and also helped herself to a lot of our stuff, you would like her, too. Some crooks are Really Nice Friends until you cannot figure out where you put your chainsaw that you thought was right there in the garage. And you thought you had 20 rabbits, but half of them are gone, and the "friend" says she was cleaning the pens and they "ran away". And your medicine cabinet is strangely empty of the strong prescription painkillers.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 8 months ago
    I recall the freedom of the Fifties. I with a lot of other kids rode bicycles to school and this was before anyone thought we should wear helmets.
    My kids? Their school lacked bicycle racks and my wife insisted they be taken by car even when they could have taken a bus.
    After school I'd help a friend with his newspaper route and have money to go buy comic books.
    So I'd peddle blocks and blocks and blocks and blocks to a soda fountain/drug store. Anyone remember those?
    My mother would not worry about me unless I made it home by supper (or dinner in redneck sprechen). I liked supper. So I always made it home.
    When I was tricycle age, I told my mother I was running away from home.
    Mother said, "Bye."
    Kinda surprised by that reaction, I left. I did not take the trike because it was too hard to peddle uphill.
    I got about two blocks before I wondered how I would eat.
    When I came into the house, my mother said, "Hi." I went and found something to do until suppertime.
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  • Posted by $ dballing 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    shrug it seems unlikely to me, but I certainly haven't done any research to make that the hill I want to die on. :-)
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Most" was the characterization given by David Barton in a video on the "Foundations of Freedom" series.
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