Comments on: “The timorous may stay at home”

By: Amy Alkon

Amy Alkon — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:16:23 +0000

Falling is a natural part of childhood. You do it then, when your bones are more pliable, learning that it hurts like hell and you should be more careful.

The French and Europeans in general are so much less prissy about how they raise their kids. They’re allowed to run and play and fall in France — it’s considered part of life. And in Italy, when somebody walks into a room with a baby, they pass it around to everybody…with no worries (statistically unfounded, by the way, if you look at books like Barry Glassner’s Culture Of Fear) that there’s a “funny uncle” at every turn. Consequently, their kids are much better adjusted (in my experience) in terms of having contact with other human beings. South American children, in my experience, are also this way. Maybe it’s a Latin orgins thing. Regardless, we’re prissy about this to our detriment.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 10:43:24 +0000

My child’s daycare was forced to remove its monkey bars recently (probably the last ones in a hundred mile radius), which they have had on their playground for YEARS, and which the children have used daily for all that time.

Why did they remove it? It was required to reneew their license.

“The timorous may stay at home.”

I WISH THEY WOULD. Instead, the stay in the courthouse.

By: Amy Alkon

Amy Alkon — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 23:53:29 +0000

“The timorous may stay at home.”

Hear, hear.