Books...yes YOU LOVER OF BOOKS...how arrange them?

[SteveRiley]

Wow. That's quite a story, Steve. I can only imagine how grateful you all were that your daughter "only" suffered a broken leg. It could have been much worse.

I know! When I got the news I pretty much fell apart. My son handled it a lot a better than I did.

[SteveRiley]

How much was the settlement?

We didn't pursue litigation -- there's too much of that crap. Drivers in Washington are required to carry a minimum of $10,000 medical on their insurance. The driver's insurance paid out their $10,000 without complaint. Then Amazon's health insurance finished off the remaining $6,000 or so -- the injury occurred six days before my employment there ended, heh.

Of course, that didn't stop Amazon's insurance company from attempting a subrogation investigation. They demanded all kinds of details from me about what happened, who paid for what, etc. I ignored their letters and calls for months. Eventually I relented. "Look, you fsckers, your problem is not my problem. Here's the driver's insurance company info -- call them and leave me alone." Not a word after that.

[DoYouKubuntu]

My experience was similar to yours, Qqmike, albeit without the water moccasins and falling through ice. The suburbs of the lovely San Gabriel Valley were pretty tame by comparison--but we were free to roam and explore and play and wear ourselves out. I remember riding my bike a few blocks away to Caltech, and admiring the campus with its beautiful architecture, and walking up to Colorado Blvd on New Year's Day to watch the Rose Parade, and walking all along Lake Ave to shop at various favorite stores, and walking to our favorite park, etc. My siblings and I were aware that there were bad people out there, but we exercised common sense caution, such as never getting near to a car that a stranger was in, things like that. We DIDN'T have a pervasive sense that evil was all around.

[DoYouKubuntu]

When my daughter was 11 (and son 14), they went up to the shopping mall the day after Christmas. As they exited the bus and began crossing the street, a driver who tried to pass the bus lost control in the snowy slush and slid into my daughter, breaking her leg. By the time we found out about it, my son had already called the police and an ambulance; they were just getting ready to go to a trauma center. I don't know if J. Random 14-Year-Old these days can act in such a mature fashion, but ours sure did.

Wow. That's quite a story, Steve. I can only imagine how grateful you all were that your daughter "only" suffered a broken leg. It could have been much worse.

[Qqmike]

Like you guys, as kids we did and went everywhere. That's how you learn to get on and survive and deal with problems and explore your world and find out WHO you are. Many kids today are really helpless, clueless. Not only are they pansies in many ways, they have no clue about, well, about, how to mow a damn lawn, take out the trash, and wash dishes!

Ages 5-15, free to roam. Did our parents care? Hell yes they cared and they had their strict rules (you got spanked! grounded, penalized on your allowance (such as it was)) and they watched for us to come home, but they let us go and explore. Did we get hurt? Hell yes we got hurt! Crashed our bikes (no helmets), all scraped up and bleeding. Hurt ice skating and even fell through the ice at the bayou/river in the winter. Fell from trees we were climbing. Hurt in sports, playing on a corner lot or in a park. Hurt hiking remote park areas (northern IL). Stung by bees. Stepped on rusty nails. Dodged water moccasins in the creeks. Cut now and then wading in the creeks and rivers and lakes (trash on the river bottoms). Slipped and fell climbing rocks--got all scraped up. Got too cold, got too hot. And on work, we learned HOW! And how to work at tough jobs, with tools, and long hours (around the neighborhood and at pi**-a** Sh** jobs)

This list of examples (learning about life on Earth) is (almost) endless. To this day, I and many people I know who grew up like this are still tough! at an advanced age, and can run circles around many young adults age 18-30. And I think my parents and grandparents were raised to be even tougher.

[GreyGeek]

Thing is, such over-protectiveness is more dangerous for children than Steve's approach, for several reasons, not least that they don't learn about dangers.

Regards, John Little

the end result of today's PC madness is that it's purpose is to enforce the idea that the State is primarily responsible for the safety of kids. Part of the cradle to the grave, "it takes a village", mentality designed to suppress individualism and self reliance.

[GreyGeek]

How much was the settlement?

[SteveRiley]

When my daughter was 11 (and son 14), they went up to the shopping mall the day after Christmas. As they exited the bus and began crossing the street, a driver who tried to pass the bus lost control in the snowy slush and slid into my daughter, breaking her leg. By the time we found out about it, my son had already called the police and an ambulance; they were just getting ready to go to a trauma center. I don't know if J. Random 14-Year-Old these days can act in such a mature fashion, but ours sure did.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thing is, such over-protectiveness is more dangerous for children than Steve's approach, for several reasons, not least that they don't learn about dangers.

I know. I hope you noticed my *sigh* after my comment.

[jlittle]

You're lucky you didn't get arrested...

Thing is, such over-protectiveness is more dangerous for children than Steve's approach, for several reasons, not least that they don't learn about dangers.

Regards, John Little

[DoYouKubuntu]

Our kids were making their way around the city on their own with bus passes from age 10 or so. Their friends were amazed; none had such freedom.

You're lucky you didn't get arrested, and your kids taken away, for being negligent. That's the latest thing now, you know. *sigh*

[Snowhog]

Our kids were making their way around the city on their own with bus passes from age 10 or so. Their friends were amazed; none had such freedom.

That's the difference between FOSP (Free Open Source Parents) and POGS (Parents Originated from a Guided Society).

[SteveRiley]

Our kids were making their way around the city on their own with bus passes from age 10 or so. Their friends were amazed; none had such freedom.

[jlittle]

The library was a big part of my childhood. All of my family (4 kids) were keen readers and for a long time a fixture was the family trip to the library on a Friday night. The car's boot (aka trunk) was often full of books, and it wasn't a small car.

Regards, John Little

[DoYouKubuntu]

In my adolescent period I spent a lot of time at the public library to escape a horrible family life. Yes, I walked the Mille between my house and the library. Hysterical busybodies didn't panic over free ranging kids and call the police. Essentially all kids prior to 1980 were free ranging.

At first I looked only at books with lots of pictures because dense text sans pictures was boring. There I learned about Leonardo DaVinci and the female anatomy. Porn, which was soft by today's standards, was found in the art section. The art books featuring anatomy were well thumbed. The location of the best pictures were immediately found by looking for the marginal folds!

One day I decided to run away. Following Huckleberry Finn's example I loaded a bandanna with 3 or 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwichs and started out heading west toward the mountains. "They'll be sorry when they realize I'm gone for good" I thought to myself. My route led right by the library and it had just opened. I was lost in the books. Suddenly the librarian informed me that the library was closing. It was pitch dark and I was hungry. I whistled my way home be tween the lamp posts. Nobody asked where I had been or even that I had been gone all day, missing all three meals.

Love it!

BTW, I walked the ONE POINT FIVE miles to and from the main library in Pasadena, and no one gave it a second thought. All the kids in my neighborhood walked (or used some other kid-powered transportation: bikes, skateboards, roller skates, etc.) all over the place. It's sad that things have changed so much now that parents are afraid to let their kids just be kids--but I'm guilty of it, too. When my daughter was young we lived in a very safe, very quiet neighborhood, but even so I just didn't want her out wandering around on her own. We'd let her go across the street to play with her friend--but watch from a window or the front porch until she was safely inside. When she was older, we did let her walk home from school--a whopping three blocks!--but that was in broad daylight with tons of other kids around.