No I make my kids run after the pickup truck down the middle of the highway. Sometimes I slam on the brakes to give them hope, then I punch it and take off laughing!

I've never seen joepole use a emoticon (sp?) but he wants to give me a high five. I just know he does. :D

Seriously your point is well taken piemaker. My reponse is that my generation has witnessed about as much change as all prior generations put together. It is not easy to redefine mankind the way my generation has had to do in order to keep up with all the movements over the last 50 years...

Rhertz, Why are you trying to be so fence riding on this???????????

You would never ever risk your children's safety, not for a minute, if what you were doing was dangerous.

I know some of the things you say are a joke. HaHa! But you still never answered one of my questions. I was from the same time period as you. I know we never had to worry about the things that go on now days. When we were young we didn't worry about whether we are going to have someone come to school with a gun. Kids were not beating and raping our elderly. Children did not worry walking down the road or playing out doors by ourselves, no fear of strangers. Did it bother you to walk blocks from home? Would you let your child walk blocks now days? What we dealt with back then ain't nothing compared to now. How many times back in the 60's did you hear of sex offenders? So joke, high five it, and still try to say we were worse off.

>you agree [with joe] about Brokeback Mountain being shown to 12 year olds.

What exactly would he be agreeing to? That it was the wrong thing to do? (which is my stance) I thought everyone here agreed on that.

>You preach about the 60's, but did you have to worry about people going into the school to shoot anyone or everyone. No that was not a worry.

Before VA Tech, do you know what the deadliest (tied with Columbine, actually) school shooting in US history was? Do you know when it was? Charles Whitman in 1966.

Do you know what/when the deadliest US school attack of any method was? Hint: It was before WWII.

Although it may not have been a worry because the news moved more slowly back then. We had a solid week of 24/7 coverage about VA Tech when a simple headline story in one day's paper would have been sufficient (and much more professional) 40 years ago.

>How many times back in the 60's did you hear of sex offenders?

That has more to do with the media than with actual crimes.

Hysteria sells. Just watch any new story about the "rampant problem" with Internet predators. There were plenty of pedophiles in the 50s and 60s.

The only thing I can agree with is that the news media over does things. They get on a subject and they are stuck on it. I got tired of listening about VA Tech. Charles Whitman may have killed in a school shooting, but it still is not like today.When you listen from week to week now it is filled with school shooting, workplace shootings, snipers, sex offenders, and teen abuse against others or elderly. You have your drive- by shootings, need I go on. Oh the 60's was hell.

Very true, and that is no joke, (but I might joke about it!) Seriously I can remember some times, perhaps a few seconds out of millions, where my kids were not buckled up. There was that time my son projectile vomited in the drive thru at McDonalds. (This was before getting any food so no McDonalds joke please) Certainly everyone who has a child has moved horizontally at over 10 MPH with an unbuckled child at least once.

But then just feeding my child McDonalds in the first place should be grounds for abuse of child safety laws. Why not go there? :D

sure, raising kids is a crapshoot.
I worry about them all the damn time.
but at the same time, when my kids were much younger, a friend of mine gave me this great big trampoline. Damn thing scared the hell out of me.. but man did my kids have a blast on it. Allowed them hours and hours of fun, and helped to burn off all that excess energy they had.. but man did it scare me at times.

I've got this absolutely huge oak tree in my back yard, I rigged up this incredible rope swing.. the kids are able to get on it at the top of the hill.. but when they take off on the swing, it swings them WAY THE HECK out there, by the time they reach the other end of the swinging motion.. towards the bottom of the hill, they are a good 70ft in the air. (if I had to guess).

if I could.. i'd build a wall so high nothing could tear it down, to protect my children.. but at the same time.. I have to allow them to be kids.. and be fearless, and do those things only kids can do..

They like doin' stupid **** on skateboards too..

But when they get in my car, they have a seatbelt on...

:peace:

Hey, they also thought smoking cigarettes posed no significant health risk....but over time people started collecting data and we discovered that this "theory" was false.

Same with riding in the back of the truck or standing on the front seat. No it's wasn't any safer then than it is today (with the exception of fewer cars on the road), but you weren't repeated told it was wrong and there weren't any laws mandating a certain level of safety either.....

Latenight!!!!You said it so well.:clapbig: :clapbig: :clapbig: