That was then, this is now?

I have to agree with you on all the restrictions. People have sued themselves into a corner and now we even have a hotline number in our community to tattle on people if their child is not securely belted, buckled and restrained. Problem is that many children are very handy with fasteners and as they get older and still required by weight to be completely buckled in, they are more than able to disconnect the belts. My grandson is small for his age and my husband and I often chuckle that he will probably have to go to prom in the back seat in a booster seat! LOL In the meantime, I've seen children on the back of a motorcycle, just holding their arms around their daddies waist without a helmet. If those same children were in a car, they would have to be restrained. The bike community has fought the helmet laws and many states do not have them. I roller skated, rode my bike and skateboarded without knee pads, elbow pads and helmet and I survived along with many others. In this country, it seems if one group decides that they want to do something, they want to enforce it on everyone.

I do think that little kids on motorcycles - or any kids on motorcycles - should wear a helmet, in an accident, even a minor one, head injuries from a motorcycle are serious. As far as the carseats and boosters, the carseats are because they are so small and could be severely injured in even a fender bender - the boosters are because they aren't big/tall enough for a seat belt to fit them properly so if they were in a crash, they'd jack knife out of it or get bruised because it doesn't hit them where it hits an adult to restrain them. I don't really understand the weight thing, because if a child is tall enough for the belt to fit them properly, the weight doesn't matter. When you ask car seat experts about the reasons for carseats, the weight becomes less important as the seat belt begins to fit a child without a booster..... there are some very small adults, in fact I happen to be one of them, and I would NEVER sit in a booster. Heh.

I agree with you on a lot of the points you made. The pressure is overwhelming on kids and time for creativity has been cut. With the crazy economy and both parents often are working multiple part time jobs to make ends meet because the good jobs are gone, they feel safer having the children in school where they can be supervised. That's not the way our country should be, but that's what it has become in our community and a lot of the other formerly manufacturing cities. Many of our people have lost the ability to "do things". Some are trying, especially with the influence of shows like HGTV, but the real craftsmen have fallen by the wayside. There has been such a push to college prep, that the ability to be skilled and creative with your hands is overlooked. There are students that just don't fit into the chemistry and calculus classes, but they could excel in a wood, metal shop, cooking or sewing class. Many schools have dropped these classes and that is a real shame. My husband said that they had to call men in their 80s and even 90s out to repair some very special brickwork on a building because there were no younger men that could do the work. You make a lot of sense in your opinion, but the world has gotten so stressful that it is not unusual that it would be projected to our children and that's a shame.

Well, a friend of mine made a joke on Monday which really isn't funny - basically that out of a group of us, I was the only one not on medication, and my daughter doesn't have a disease and she doesn't have any learning issues lol. It sounds funny at first but the sad part I realized is that if I'm one of the only people our group knows who is 'ok' without medication and so is my child, there's something backwards about the way things are now. I don't want her to be stressed, worried, and always competing or proving herself because other people are idiots. I have had to do that for too many years myself and it sucks.

It's true we didn't get all the time off DURING the year that kids have now, but I think that's kind of a problem. I would think it would be better to have less time off DURING the year and still have June, July, and August off. I have talked to some kids - and teens in particular say if they have to go to school for more hours each day and more days each year, that will only INCREASE the dropout rate, not decrease it. They feel they already go to school enough hours and enough days, adding to that is not seen as a positive by them. I don't blame them for feeling that way, they want time to socialize, to get jobs, some of them just to SLEEP. When I was a teen, I WORKED THRU MY VACATIONS TOO! That's why I looked forward to them so much! It was a huge opportunity for me. During the school year before I was 18, I was restricted to my babysitting jobs either only up till 8 or 9 pm on weekdays if I did it at all, and mostly just to weekends to make the bulk of what I made. As far as fast food, until you're 18, you have to deal with all the child labor laws and sometimes you only get like 3 hours a day - when your employer puts you on the schedule to work. Of course when you're going to school and doing sports, you have limited hours in which to work - a sample schedule for me started around 6 am - school started at 7:20 and I walked a few blocks to school. School got out at 2:10 and then I went straight to practice. I got off practice around 4 and my mom took me to work.... I got off work around 7 and came home and cleaned up dinner and read for awhile before I went to bed. I couldn't stay up much past 10 or I'd NEVER be able to wake up at 6 - I was NOT a morning person when I was a kid! Anyway, that was my basic schedule. I didn't work every evening but some afternoons/evenings I had games or meets, and I often didn't get home from those until late, especially if they were away events that we had to get on buses for. Honestly, part of what made me prepared was HAVING those opportunities to get a job, to keep a job and juggle that WITH school and sports and friends and family. Time management and scheduling effectively is a skill that not everybody is good at, but anybody can improve if you get the opportunity to PRACTICE it. If our kids all have that opportunity taken from them via not having long breaks (so they no longer get chosen by employers for a job) by having too much school and school work and budget cuts to extracurricular programs so now you have no school based sports, music, drama, etc AND you have too much work so now you don't have time even if you find independently run community or private programs, then you run the risk of not being well rounded. Now you have kids who have never worked a part time job. Fresh out of college with a degree - NO JOB EXPERIENCE. On college applications people used to have part time jobs, volunteer work, sports, clubs, hobbies, interests. If you have no time for any of those things any more, your application is going to look bare. You also won't have any clue how to multitask or manage your day when all that has happened is that you've been micromanaged from the time you're five - go to school go to school go to school. Do classwork oh and by the way, BRING MORE HOME! No time to play, no time to explore, no time to get life experience! YOu have a packet and studying to do so you can be the best. The best at what? Sounds pretty dull to me. You are right, kids nowadays have all sorts of things we didn't. I cannot IMAGINE what might have happened to me if I had had a computer and internet access, online gaming, a ps3, a cell phone, texting, internet ON my cell phone, an ipod... yes, it's crazy. We have satellite radio so I can avoid commercials, we have a dvr so we can fast forward commercials and record programs when we aren't here or if we're watchng something different. I love technology, it's great, but I think it interferes a little bit with base creativity and communication. I do think it's more important than ever that kids learn how to USE current technology though, but perhaps not to rely SOLEY on it. I like to teach and relay information about other ways to do things too, just in case technology breaks down... it is such a pain. I'm one of those who still has a corded phone tucked away in a closet, I keep stamps on my desk, I still have non-electric can openers and flashlights that you crank to turn on lol. Sure, I prefer the bluetooth and my cell, I prefer email or instant message or text, but in a pinch I still have the necessary resources to deal with it another way.

Man oh man, I didn't even ADDRESS the issue of the short lunches and no breaks. I had THREE recesses plus a 30 minute lunch when *I* went to school. It was exactly 6 hours too, 9 AM till 3 PM. That's 6 hours, right? I had a morning recess of 15 minutes, a lunch recess of 15 minutes, and an afternoon recess of 15 minutes. WE also had PE EVERY DAY. We had music at least once a week. We did some sort of art at least once a week. The only stipulation I'd be okay with if the day were longer? No additional work to bring home. Recess breaks for elementary school, morning AND afternoon. At least 30 minutes for lunch. PE EVERY DAY. If they want to add an hour? That's my expectations for that additional hour. In high school they should already have PE every day. They should already get a 30 minute lunch. For high school, they could do an extra 45 minutes of excel - or uninterrupted learning time. OR they could bring back study hall and let every student have a 'free' period in which to complete all their work for the day.

Change happens not for the sake of change but for what is necessary and benificial and for the good of the society in general in some cases yes I would agree with you and I do...HOWEVER in other cases such as the kids being overworked and pushed too hard in school I disagree...and actually both my mother (a teacher who retired last yr) and my sister who was a teacher for yrs but is now a principal, both agree that the kids are being pushed too hard...I dont see how that benefits anyone nor do I see how its necessary...

As long as there is SOME sort of option for the people whom the change is going to severely impair or hurt, let the majority have it. I don't want to go along with it though if it isn't going to benefit me, why should I? I have never understood why people have to do that, as if giving up what is important to you should be acceptable. I have been called a rebel, and I won't disagree. I'm not a crowd follower and I expect things to both make sense AND benefit me or I don't buy into it. Your reasons for being for something may be exactly the reasons I'm against it. Not everything is good for everybody and it's high time that EVERYBODY realized that and allowed people to choose for themselves what is good for them individually and what isn't. Fairness isn't always about treating everybody the SAME. Fairness is about treating people the way they benefit most individually. I received a GREAT example of this from one of my teachers. When she taught in the classroom (now she does training adults instead of teaching kids) there were kids who had individual situations - so if she let one of them leave the classroom, she had a reason, just like if she let another one come to take his tests at lunch instead of when all the students took it - he did better without the distractions. One of them slept in class sometimes but he was up all night working because he was raising his brother on his own with no parents - so it was understandable.... Do you see where I'm going with this? This is something that NEEDS to be taken into account or people will suffer.

Obviously the most important skills a child needs to be successful in school are the ability to read and comprehend, analyze and filter things. They need basic math skills, the ability to focus and concentrate, and enough knowledge to understand what is important and what isn't, so they get the most important parts of a lesson, not the extra stuff. They need to know how to organize themselves and how to manage their time effectively. That's it. A student who has those things down, who can ignore distractions and ISN'T a distraction themselves in the classroom, who can listen when they are supposed to and begin and complete an assignment quickly when it's time to do that - they will be fine. They don't need 2 extra hours of school, 2 hours of homework, or 3 days of repetition and lecturing. I believe even more strongly than I did initially that kids who are still 4 should not be starting kindy - IF their attention span is poor, if they have no impulse control, if they cannot listen to the teacher and follow the rules, even if they don't FEEL like it. From time to time ALL kids have bad days, but if you're only 4 and you really can't sit still and you miss your mommy, you can't write your name, and kids are thinking you're weird because you freak out every day instead of waiting your turn when it's game or art time. Trying to make kids do things they clearly aren't ready for turns into a huge power struggle, and also they may learn to hate learning early, because to them it is TOO HARD. I'm glad to hear from another who actually enjoyed their summers! I know there can't be just two of us lol. I also don't think there's any direct connection from education to crime. My feeling is that the people who are predisposed to committing crimes would be that way anyway, and if they were forced to get more education they'd just rebel earlier, it would be a waste.

I think it ruins some kids, to be quite honest. A long time ago before I even had kids, I remember hearing some parents talking about putting their *as yet* unborn kids or even infants on some waiting list for a prestigious private expensive preschool because 'don't you know, otherwise Maddie won't get into Yale'. Hmph. There IS such a thing as parents being too competitive for their offspring. While it IS important to care about education and to talk about college, in the end, it has to be up to the kid. Forcing your kid to get an education will backfire, either they won't apply themselves and you'll have wasted the money or perhaps they'll get around it and take things THEY want even if it isn't what YOU want. The solution is to get them to want to do it, but on their own, not because YOU care so much, and certainly not via a threat from our government.

But I will add that although the children have a shorter summer vacation, they have a longer break in the spring and the fall. And sometimes that is nice, because the family can take a vacation on the off season when things aren't crowded.

See my above post for my conundrum about the provisional/restricted licenses. And for people who say 'what about irresponsible and immature teen drivers' I would simply just not allow them to get a license OR purchase a car if they were still a minor lol. There are a lot of things that a minor cannot do without parental help or parental consent. The vacation thing.... if too many schools in the area adopt the same schedule, then everything will eventually be crowded again at the same times, just like if an accident occurs and people start taking the side streets/back roads, after a little while, EVERYBODY is doing it to avoid the source of the blockage, and then the side streets/back roads become just as congested if not worse. I guess I attribute some of my feelings toward the fact that I'd rather have fewer breaks and just get something done. My goal generally with stuff that may not be excessively fun is to tackle it quickly, focus on it completely, and get it done. That would be for me in terms of a class or school - what is the QUICKEST way I can get it done with the least amount of interruptions so I can move on to something else I'd rather do instead. I really feel if kids did this, there would be a lot less wasted time overall. People take too many breaks though, so something that should take 10 minutes takes 20... something that should be able to be accomplished in a year takes two.

Thanks for your input . I disagree with shrinking summers too, mostly because you do not get that time back, ever. What adult can take a vacation that long without getting laid off or fired and then worrying about income? Unless you're independently wealthy, have a huge trust fund, or live with your parents as an adult and they don't care that you live off them, it's really not an option. I LOVED my summer vacations. I liked having that block of time to just hang out, relax, do stuff *I* wanted to do. Here where my family and I live, summer is great for bbqs, riding the bike up in the mountains, swimming, etc. When I was little, we went camping a LOT. I have so many memories of camping and other things with my family, my hubby isn't into camping but I do want to do it at least once so our daughter can experience it lol. I'd take her by myself but I'm really not so good at putting up a tent and the last thing I need is for it to collapse on us at 2 AM. The driver's license thing confounds me. This is why. When I was 15, I got a permit. When I was 16, I took driver's ed at school - it was free, we only had to pay a fee when I took the test. I could have received my license as soon as I passed the class and got my certificate BUT my parents could not put me on their ins, as it would have skyrocketed the rate and I didn't make enough money myself to afford something like $140 a month plus the gas - AND I would have little to no use of my parents' cars. I think for teenage boys it's even worse, almost $200. This was in 90 or 91. Anyway, I also had to buy my own car, which is what I was working to save money for. I got my license when I was 18 because that's when I purchased my car. My license was normal, it had no provisions, but back then there were no provisional licenses anyway. The reason I'm a little bit concerned about the provisional thing is that I had been hoping my daughter might be able to get her car and license when she turned 16, or maybe 17. Whatever money she earns herself (not from us, just outside sources) I plan to match to help her buy her first car - so say she earns $40 - 60 a week starting from the time she's 13 or 14 doing a job for somebody, say babysitting or tutoring or whatever. Perhaps she also gets birthday money or a gift. If she puts aside $100 every few weeks, I'll match it. Eventually she'll have enough to buy something used with cash, and then she can. She'd then be able to drive to school and - if she has one - a part time job, as well as activities etc and I won't have to drive her. The problem is - if there is a stipulation that she cannot have teenage passengers, then she cannot give her friends a ride to school or pick them up to go to work. She cannot bring them home if they get stranded at school or at work, or wherever they happen to be. I think that a teen driver can have a parent or another adult over 25 but nobody under that? That's what I'm hearing. It just seems a shame if you have a responsible mature teen driver in your household, and again as if they get penalized because of all the ones who are NOT. I know I would feel like utter crap if I had a car and could drive and my best friend was sitting at Arby's and I couldn't drive her home because I was afraid I'd get pulled over and lose my license - but it was raining like crazy and her mom wasn't home and wasn't answering her cell phone...