How much freedom do your kids have?

[geepy]

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Those were the good years.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Well, the same thing happens to my 17 year old if he "forgets" to do something, but at the end of the day when he wants to go running around with friends, I tell him to have a good time (but not too good of a time).

Do you get to go out and "explore" on your own? Do your parents give you some freedom to go out riding your bike, hang out with friends, do what you want at times without them constantly looking over your shoulder?

 

[redhen]

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Mac... that kind of stuff is kinda "normal" kid behavior.... And you wernt setting things on fire and destroying peoples property. (were you?)

Today its Gangs and serious drugs.... thats a BIG concern, and a REAL problem, for most parents today...(unless you live waaay in the country.)
Thats WHY today, parents need to supervise their children differently then back 20-30 years ago...
*sounds like you had fun as a kid *

 

[Duramaxgirl]

I'm the over protective parent

sorry... my husband is the one that let's them roam! Between my freaking out and his easygoing everythings ok attitude I think where going to make it!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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I think we were all firebugs and we really liked blowing things up with firecrackers... We used to play with fire just like the kids in the newspaper article, their problem was that after they left the playground some smoldering remnants burned down the playground equipment. Blame it on the mulch that they use to make the playground safer.

When I was a kid our playground equipment was on blacktop... No, I'm just being facetious. What happened was serious, and they are going to pay the piper one way or another and learn a lesson from it.

Gangs and drugs? They've been around a long, long time, even 20-30 years ago. People should talk to their kids about such things... Don't hide the kids in the basement out of fear of such things.

 

[Chickenrandomness]

Quote:
Well, the same thing happens to my 17 year old if he "forgets" to do something, but at the end of the day when he wants to go running around with friends, I tell him to have a good time (but not too good of a time).

Do you get to go out and "explore" on your own? Do your parents give you some freedom to go out riding your bike, hang out with friends, do what you want at times without them constantly looking over your shoulder?

i get to explore a little, i'm not allowed to go off the farm. and at our old suburban home we're moving back into this weekend, i can't leave the neighborhood.

my parents don't mid me riding my bike in said places above. but my parents are rather suspicious about me going to friends houses unless they know them or my older siblings know them. (i have no idea why, but my parents are always saying they don't trust me

maybe its cuz i'm different that my brother and sister; i make more mistakes, i have opposite views and interests than my brother and sister, and while the rest of my family are pacifists, i'm opposite, its not that i like killing, its because i find moder weaponry, war tactics, etc. are intriguing.) they probably think i'm going to gang up with people they don't know and go shoot people. they probably think that thanks to my brother whos plan to get rid of my BB gun worked; long story short, he tattled on me for shooting at him with my BB gun when he perposly walked in the middle of my make-shift firing range and just stood there messing with the dirt on the ground.

i can't really do too much really. i kinda have givin up asking them to go do stuff cuz i know how it'll end. so instead, i just sit all day on the computer (during summer)

 

[redhen]

Quote:
I think we were all firebugs and we really liked blowing things up with firecrackers... We used to play with fire just like the kids in the newspaper article, their problem was that after they left the playground some smoldering remnants burned down the playground equipment. Blame it on the mulch that they use to make the playground safer.

When I was a kid our playground equipment was on blacktop... No, I'm just being facetious. What happened was serious, and they are going to pay the piper one way or another and learn a lesson from it.

Gangs and drugs? They've been around a long, long time, even 20-30 years ago. People should talk to their kids about such things... Don't hide the kids in the basement out of fear of such things.

I know, tis true. Talk to them... and be really involved in their lives.
You sound like a wonderful Dad...

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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That's the general balance here. My wife will be freaking out at one in the morning because our seventeen year old is late coming home from running around. I tell her that I'm sure he's fine, to go to bed, that I'll be sure to yell at him in the morning. I then yell at him the morning, not so much for coming home late, but for worrying his mother.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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You live on a farm and you sit on the computer all day? It sounds like you were having fun with the BB gun until you did something dumb. How about building a tree house? A nice lean-to fort in the woods? A fort in the hay loft? Got any fishing holes nearby? A pond to swim in? Go make a bow and some arrows out of some saplings and don't shoot anybody with it...

 

[redhen]

Quote:
You live on a farm and you sit on the computer all day? It sounds like you were having fun with the BB gun until you did something dumb. How about building a tree house? A nice lean-to fort in the woods? A fort in the hay loft? Got any fishing holes nearby? A pond to swim in? Go make a bow and some arrows out of some saplings and don't shoot anybody with it...

Yep.. THATS the way to be a kid...