Pointing a finger gun lands 12-year-old Johnson County student in handcuffs

[Information Analyst]

Irrelevant YouTube videos. Well done.

Tough crowd in tonight...

 

[psionl0]

My kids both played outside and played video games.
The amount of “kids today” grumbling is always humorous in any thread mentioning children.

Our parents thought we were lazy, good-for-nothing generations too.

Other than the added word, I don't disagree with your sentiment. In earlier times, the complaint would have been "kids spend too much time watching TV".

My anecdotal evidence is that I see far fewer kids playing outside than in the past. And, on the rare occasion that they are playing with toy guns, they certainly are not hand carved.

 

[Graham2001]

Perhaps some, but I literally never see kids playing outside where I live. I rarely see them walking to school. I just moved from a small town and it didn't happen there either.

I pretty much never see them on bikes and I know there are very few, if any, kids allowed to ride around town on their own on a Saturday. I used to do that in 3rd grade.

See many third and fourth graders riding around discovering how to be responsible by having some freedom? Not me.

We have huge beautiful parks here that nobody uses. Really, they are empty every time I drive by or take the dog.

We got a "kid" that works at my parents shop. He was 21 and had no license. Mom drove him to work. It is not uncommon for kids to not drive until their 20s, and to move out - whenever, if ever.

I work with a girl who is 29 and has no plan to move out. She takes vacations all the time, pays no rent, living life good! Sells weed to her friends when she's not at work. She works hard though I give her a lot of credit there.

I don't think there was a lot of hyperbole there really. The general trend is for kids to stay indoors. Kids today may not know what it's like to have freedom therefore they don't know they don't have it.

This is California. Maybe some parts of the country that aren't as f'd up as we are have it better.

It's the same in a lot of places, the 'Satanic Panic' did a lot of harm worldwide. Parents became convinced that there were paedophiles everywhere and so they needed to keep their children in sight at all times.