Wussification of America - Real?

As somebody who grew up recently (graduated high school 2013), I will say that a lot depends on the parenting (duh). Up until high school, I spent every minute I could outside riding my bike (alone), shooting BB guns, or playing sports with friends.

Yes, the participation awards are stupid and getting more popular, but it's still up to a parent to teach their kid care about it or not. What you take pride in is something that you learn from your parents, or I know I did.

What always scares me, now, is getting in trouble for minor pranks and little things. Digital trails and surveillance cameras are everywhere.
My high school senior class wasn't allowed to do a prank without having the school approve it, with the threat of everyone involved not being able to walk at graduation. I was a little peeved at that.

Interested to hear some more of this.

We carried the teachers car, a Suzuki Mighty Boy, and placed it between two portable classrooms, sideways, less than an inch of space, I think they would frown on that these days.

My arse got beat at school by teachers and I turned out OK, well OK that's debatable but there would be no chance now.

Walked the streets all day and all night back then, never even had a cop speak to me about it.

Used to buy beer at 15, looking like I was 11.

This is the real problem.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=Footballer+Asked+To+Stop+Playing+As+He+Was+Too+Good&fr=chrf-yff26

and it's not once

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/26/little-league-pitcher-ban_n_121346.html

Unfreakingbelievable, whoever started this should have been punched in the face for mentioning it.

I suspect most here are guilty of being wussified in this way:

Driving somewhere (even long trips through unpopulated area!) WITHOUT a cell phone... in case.

(and cars, certainly the ones we were likely driving were far less reliable, though a lot more fixable in some cases)

In reply to aircooled:

Not guilty. One of the main reasons I'm still like T-Mobile, is the ability to get out of the coverage area for hours on end. Like yesterday, 20 miles of dirt roads without a soul in sight. Sorry, I was out of the coverage area, leave a message.

Toyman01 wrote:

Duke wrote: When I was about 10 or 11 - 5th or 6th grade - I had a Honda XR75. No lights, not even remotely street legal. Yet I could get just about anywhere in Chester County, PA (a radius of maybe 30 miles from home?) without doing more than crossing a road with a yellow stripe. I used to pack a lunch and a jug of water and be gone all day.

This was me, except it was a 12' jon boat and a 5hp outboard or a 1962 Chevy truck. I'd be gone until dark or I was out of gas. I've got much cooler toys now, but it takes a stick of dynamite to get my kids out of the house. I blame the wife and the police. She had a protected childhood and the cops won't let you get away with anything nowadays. Tickets and fines for everything rather than, "take that thing home," or a "slow down."

This,everything is a felony, punishable by death because you are a menace to the snowflakes.

aussiesmg wrote: We carried the teachers car, a Suzuki Mighty Boy, and placed it between two portable classrooms, sideways, less than an inch of space, I think they would frown on that these days.

I got three days off for that in middle school. Today, it would be jail time for vandalism, expulsion and fines.

In reply to Toyman01:

We did the same thing, got a good talking to but that was it.

We had BB gun wars, I doubt you could that now. And my buddies and I would leave on our mini bikes and stay gone all day, or until we ran out of gas, terrorizing the neighborhood woods. We were like 8 or 9 at the time. I'm sure the EPA has laws against that now. And the parents would have GPS device on you somewhere.

Back in 1977-1979 when I worked for the builder a lot of the mid-20's construction guys would ask if we wanted to smoke some weed. We were 14-16 years old.

The older guys that were 40 years and up would just hassle us and tell us about sexual stuff.

I assume all of you protest the need of a roll bar. Let alone a cage.

Or that racers have to have seat belts, let alone HANS devices.

Stock steel tanks should be fine, let alone fuel cells.

noting the size of debates we have about just autocross safety, I can't take a single post here seriously.

bentwrench wrote: Yep, if you get fragged in a fight you just hit the reset button, and ask your mom to bring you another soda and order a pizza.

I would just like to point out that video games have been wussified as well :(

aircooled wrote: I suspect most here are guilty of being wussified in this way: Driving somewhere (even long trips through unpopulated area!) WITHOUT a cell phone... in case. (and cars, certainly the ones we were likely driving were far less reliable, though a lot more fixable in some cases)

Just after I got my license I would go for massive drives. For hours or days. 16-17 year old kid driving all over southern Ohio, Indian and Northern Kentucky with barely enough money in his pocket for gas and no cell phone in a car that he rebuilt himself that was destined for the junkyard. Somehow I always made it home.

I don't really think the wussification thing is as big a deal as you all might think. Not like your kids would be telling you anyway.

But any wussification would be due to the generation most of you belong to...

Got one of these when I was about eight:

(Hint: A triple shot of powder produces a huge fireball)

Fireworks, lots of fireworks.

Lawn darts (already covered)

Minibikes, go carts, etc.

Ramps, the higher and sketchier, the better.

Control line model planes with open props.

Dodgeball was freshmen vs senior class aides with volleyballs, basketballs, etc. People bled.

I got a 4th place ribbon for Field Day. Can you imagine a kid coming in forth place?

In Montana, we had a bad ass playground. Metal slides. Old tractor tire sunk vertically into the ground. And a big ,sandstone hill in the middle. It was about two stories tall and you could easily climb to the top. We spent many a day building LEGO cars and shoving them over the edge and leaning over to watch them shatter on the dirt below. No one ever fell off. Ever. And if they did, they kept their mouth shut, cause Mom would have beat their ass for being dumb. This park would never fly today. Look at it.

alfadriver wrote: I assume all of you protest the need of a roll bar. Let alone a cage. Or that racers have to have seat belts, let alone HANS devices. Stock steel tanks should be fine, let alone fuel cells. noting the size of debates we have about *just* autocross safety, I can't take a single post here seriously.

One of the schools (can't remember which) up here banned the kids from playing "tag" at recess because it singled children out and made them feel bad.

ProDarwin wrote:

bentwrench wrote: Yep, if you get fragged in a fight you just hit the reset button, and ask your mom to bring you another soda and order a pizza.

I would just like to point out that video games have been wussified as well :(

This is the truth- including MISSION SKIP! Oh.... too hard? Let's skip it! you still get to see the ending and pretend you did a good job!

The T Ball league that my kids are in decided that it was too dangerous to allow snacks after the game or to have pizza parties.

Boost_Crazy wrote: The T Ball league that my kids are in decided that it was too dangerous to allow snacks after the game or to have pizza parties.

Please tell me you're joking. I have a LONG road ahead of me if this is where my kid is headed. He's 4.

Also reminds me of a story-

I was probably...8-9 years old. Playing ball with some kids down the street. Sketchy neighborhood. Rumor circulated that an older kid was threatening younger ones for money with a knife. Did we call the cops? Did we tell parents? Did we run and hide? No. We grabbed bats, table legs, sticks, whatever.... and waited. Now- this is a TERRIBLE idea, and I look back and go holy E36 M3 that was stupid, but that was the late 80's. So it wasn't THAT long ago we still took care of our own E36 M3.

The summer I graduated HS (89) I worked construction and one of my jobs was building a sea wall. The crane operator would swing the hook to a big pile of rocks (like 6-10 foot across, BIG rocks) and I "rigged" them with a nylon strap and then rode the rock (standing on the strap and holding the headache ball) 20-40' in the air around to where the rock was getting placed. Not tied off, no harness, no hard hat, no safety vest. Teenager in cut offs and t-shirt.

I told this to our safety expert at work now and she nearly fainted.

Oh, and we often had beer with lunch back then.

The summer before my boss gave me a dump truck and a bobcat (on a trailer) and sent me off into Cape Cod traffic alone to take care of small jobs. I've met today's 17 year olds, I don't see that happening these days.

I can nail down the when of the wussification pretty well. Almost immediately after me things went soft in a hurry (a class of 1993 person is a world away from someone who graduated in the 80's). Other than the end of the Cold War, what happened right about then that turned kids from "dirt's good for you Timmy, walk it off" to "every precious snowflake must be saved from the big bad world"?

I'm reading a lot of "when I was a kid I did some spooky stuff and no one cared and everything was fine". What I'm not reading is "now that I'm an adult I'm trying to let kids do spooky stuff, and to try and get there, I'm picketing, protesting, and putting my job on the line. Because everything will be fine." What are you anti-wussies risking to let kids today get away with the stuff you got away with?