I'm ordering the plastic bubble habitat for my daughter to grow up in today.

I got hurt once playing tag while waiting for the school bus at the end of my street. Not sure who could have been sued for that one.

Our species is going to die out in a couple of generations from terminal fear.

Clearly the school is at fault, Janet, since you would not have been at that bus stop had you not been waiting for the bus to take you to school.

You seem traumatized. Nothing a couple million dollars can't fix. The kids don't need computers, anyway.

Mike, you don't let your dear child actually play do you? We've stopped our girls from doing any of that. Most days we don't let them out of bed. But then, the bed sores kick in, so we now have to let them calmly and slowly walk about their room, which is, of course, padded.

meh. This is being discussed on a running list I'm on, and I hesitate to accord it all that much importance. It's an instance of stupidity that, I think, does not necessarily translate into a harbinger of the apocalypse. If there were a law about it, that would be something else...

Also, and I've not read too much into the history of children's games, so I could be wrong, my guess is that playing tag at school is a fairly recent phenonmenon. My guess is that the level of decorum required during earlier times may have precluded recess at all, much less rowdy games like tag. I mention this becuase it can be tempting to naturalize the present and view change from that present norm as bad per se, when the norm itself can be easily called into question by reference to actual (versus idealized) history.

Also, I broke my knee quite badly while essentially playing tag as a kid. I don't think it should be outlawed, though.

It's an instance of stupidity that, I think, does not necessarily translate into a harbinger of the apocalypse.

No, but like all stupidity it deserves to be mocked relentlessly.

(truth be told, what was annoying about the MeFi thread on this was how so many people were forcing themselves to view it thru the prism of ideology, the right wingers carping about litigiousness, the lefties getting all shock-and-horror that it would be used as anti-liberal propoganda. It kind of irks me that people can't put their ideologies aside and simply see the world)

Also, what some people haven't figured out is that most kids enjoy roughhousing, getting bruised and scraped up can be fun if you approach it right.

You're right, omie, it's one instance of stupidity. But I feel (and I don't have any conclusive proof) that it's more of a representation of the norm (or what is becoming the norm) than an exception to it. That is what worries me.

And, yeah, jon. I'm not a MeFi reader so I missed that whole thing, but it really does make me wonder who I should be pissed at: the people making these asinine rules, or the people who sue misguidedly in a moneygrab over their child's accident that just happened to occur at school. Like omie, I was seriously hurt at school growing up, but my parents never even considered holding the school responsible for something stupid that I did.

As a parent, of course I do not want my child to get hurt. But I understand that it's part of being a child! She is constantly covered in bruises and two weeks ago hurt herself badly enough that I had to leave work early to get her. But until I hear her say to me that her teacher pushed her off the monkey bars, going after the school for my kid just being a kid just seems so ludicrous.

Hmmmm.... somehow this seems to be a complementary story.

Banning games at recess? That doesn't go far enough. Let's ban gym class altogether, since a kid could get hurt there - hit with a ball, fall down, you name it. Don't forget art class - you could cut yourself with scissors or get paint in your eyes. While we're at it, let's ban anything you have to do with pencil and paper. You could get paper cuts or stab yourself with a pencil. Oh noes! Really, I don't know how I made it to 32 with all that dangerous stuff I did as a kid. : )

Stop me from playing tag? They'll have to catch me first!

*lobs ball at mike9322*

Oof! *thud*

You'll be hearing from my lawyer, pips.

I just heard yesterday that something like 25% of teachers now carry liability insurance out of fear of lawsuits.

What the blood clot?!
INSANE!!!!

I want to apologize right now to anyone I've sent the emcee slice to with the opening line of "tag, you're it". I didn't mean anything by it, honestly.

When I was about 9 we went on a school trip to Kenilworth Castle, which is a ruin. Playing in the ruins, one kid, messing about, fell down a steep bank and injured himself (not badly). The teacher's reaction was to whack him round the head for being so stupid.

When we got back to the school, the teacher told his mum, and she whacked him round the head too.

I'm not saying it was right, it's just how it was then.

What the blood clot?!

Thank you for my new favorite epithet of the day. I collect these things, you know.

the level of decorum required during earlier times may have precluded recess at all, much less rowdy games like tag.

I agree that this is an isolated story, but there's loads and loads of historical evidence for kids playing these and much rougher games. It's true that recess as such didn't exist until the institutionalization of education beginning in the late 1700s and really taking off after the Civil War. But schoolyard games existed long before that time, as did all sorts of other highly vigorous, dangerous play activity. There's been quite thorough scholarship done on children's play. the idea that children were rigidly restricted in behavior during the past is largely an illusion - the rigid structures of politeness developed only when lineage diminished in social importance at the end of the middle ages and a merchant class emerged. the behaviors of decorum have largely been confined historically to the thinly populated upper classes, spreading to the middle classes also for a short time during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and always more the exception than the rule. So this sort of restriction on physical play and overcaution is a pretty new social phenomenon. Never have children been esteemed more fragile and precious.

*votes miko Most Intellectual*

Thanks for the info. The tentative nature of my comments in that regard are more than justified.

Most Intellectual

Nah, I just like to play.

But not roughly, I hope. ;^)

Kids can't be kids, these days. If they're not allowed to play, they're shuffled off to a myriad of after school lessons, organized sports, activities. God forbid they skin a knee-call a plastic surgeon!! Unfortunatly, the spin on the world is to sue for whatever you can. Personal responsiblity? Nah, it's always someone else's fault. Sad. I guess this makes me mad for several reasons. I always feel bad when other parents mention the sports or other out-of-school activities, as my kids aren't really involved in any. Am I shortchanging them by not insisting they have swimming, music, sports during their week? Am I being neglectful for just letting them play outside with other neighborhood kids? Is it wrong of me to feel that they are safe in the house playing PlayStation when the sun goes down, as opposed to chasing each other in the street? And then I pray they'll play elsewhere, so none of their friends could accidentally get hurt on my property. For which their parents will probably sue. Vicious circle.

Sorry for the ramble.