Yes, my state requires a parent/guardian's permission for a driver's license - and much more.

For details see http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/drivers/programs/gdl.html#initial

Times sure have changed, but as a parent I see it is necessary in some ways, but not all.

Lets compare then and now and you be the judge.

Year:1975

I just waltzed right into a store called "American Merchandise" and bought a cheap $1 non-locking pocketknife when I was 10. It was my first new knife purchase. I had already owned one and knew how to sharpen them, my Grandad taught me. My parents didn't worry, even if I toted it.

Year: 2006

I bought the right lockblade folding knife ($35-40) for my son for scouts last year when he was 10 and he was taught safely how to use it in boyscouts and by myself. He owned one cheaper similar model, but his mother (my ex) understandably wouldn't hardly let him put his hands on it unless he was with me. He is just learning how to sharpen his new knife. His mother took a while to adjust to him having his own knife. It has to be somewhat of a ritual I guess if he is to transport it somewhere.

I guess I'm lucky. I rode my bike to the local (and only) sporting goods store in town and bought a Western Cutlery
4 inch hunting knife when I was about 12 (still have it too), no ID required, no parent required, and I only used it for cleaning and skinning deer, cleaning fish, trimming my fingernails, whittleling, and occasionally nicking my finger. Never even thought about sticking the class bully with it. And just about every boy carried some kind of knife to school every day, with everyones implied permission. Different era I guess...

As a parent I can some what understand wanting to know what your kids are buying.
But I also remember buying a lot of things that my folks knew nothing about until they found it, or I cut my self with it or my personal favorite, blew my self up with it. And after one or all of those thing happened, they never took the item from me. It makes me wonder now if they just trusted me that much or was hopping that I would do myself in so they would not have to feed me any more.

Aloha Mike,

I don't mean to jack the thread, but I would really like to know what is in the keychains you made up for your kids.

Perhaps you can PM me or start a new thread as I am sure I am not the only one who would like to know.

Mahalo everyone.

I guess the driving was perhaps a poor analogy.

In Alabama, the age of medical consent is 14. Meaning your daughter can go to the doc and buy birth control pills and be forbidden by law to tell you, even though you are responsible for the medical bills.

Yet, at the same time, another state cracks down on a pocket knife.

No common sense left anymore.


ETA
I am a father of four.

I too purchased pocketknives without my parents when I was a kid/teen and carried a pocketknife (including to school) since I was around 9 years old (my Cub Scout knife). Despite getting into the routine fights usually with my friends, I would have never considered pulling out my knife to use as a weapon, just not part of our mentality for settling things, fistfights and the occasional mud clod war.

Today, things are very different, most schools have a zero tolerance policy for any kind of knife (due to the actions of a few), which, depending upon the school may even include a nail file. We can decry the current state of affairs with these excessive policies and loss of common sense, but often, it is same lot us who will also decry the lack of parental oversight when things go wrong.

It is sometimes difficult to rectify or balance personal responsibility (of the kids) with parental responsibility. As a parent, I feel very strongly, that it is my responsibility and my primary responsibility to instill in my kids the knowledge of right from wrong. However, I can tell you from personal experience, including my own actions, kids/teens do not always make the right/thoughtful/intelligent decision and require guidance.

Balancing privileges, rights and responsibilities for our kids is not always easy and I would rather air on the side of caution and know what my kids are doing (in their business/bee’s wax), including consumer purchases, then be one of those parents, who are shocked when their kid is arrested for whatever.

Indeed it is a different generation.

Just my 2 cents-
Pete

I agree with you 100 percent, Pete. I toted knives as a kid and got into plenty of brawls using my fists and pulling my knife was out of the question. Its a whole different generation and the degradation of the morality of the nation overall has to be blamed, not the kids. How we raise our children has so much to do with it. I see many people who learn from their mistakes when their first child turns out to be a demon and they raise their next child right who turns out to be totally different. My son can probably stomp most any kid's butt he's around and is big for his age and is a red senior (one step below black belt) in Taikwondo or however you spell it. But he attends church weekly, and has the brains to just turn around and walk away when confronted by some idiot at school because he knows THEY are not worth his satisfaction, and there is no telling what they might pull out of their pocket.