aye

I still remember my 9th birthday when my grandfather gave me an old washing machine, access to all his tools, and the command "Take that apart". I spent all day dismantling the washer down into hundreds of peices. Thankfully he didn't tell me to put it back together again!

Meanwhile back on the farm we'd take turns grabing the electric fence, shocking each other with cattle prods, playing chicken with firecrackers in fresh cowpies, building tree forts, having apple and dirt-clod wars, digging holes, playing in abandoned quarries, spending days (and nights) out in the woods, etc...

*sigh* Kids these days miss out on so much. Not mine, but other people's kids...

-Blast, fondly recalling the time a cow tried to eat DD1's dress on how she thought that was cool

gotta dig it up. The kids have taken it 'somewhere'

Some others - learn to throw a rock, "taste" electricity by licking a 9V battery, Play (safely) in a hailstorm (by wearing a pot on your head) etc - Hint, I looked through it, and my first take was "Oh well, that was a waste"

I agree with jbmat.. we all seemed to survive with out a book telling our parents what was dangerous. We as a people are raising the most coddled and useless people that nature has ever produced. Pain is a great learning tool.

Funny, I am now old enough (shudder to think!) that I remember when seatbelts were an "accessory". Most of our vehicles didnt have seatbelts-the kids just piled in the back. A few vehicles didnt even have seats: our old landrover had no back seat, our Ford econoline van, no back seat, and a pickup truck-no place FOR a back seat!
One of my fondest memories was driving around town, all of us kids (5 of us, from 10 down to 4) being in the back of the truck, as my dad drove around, and we'd yell every time we went under a bridge . Sadly, that was probably one of our safer activities....

As a kid, or still am but just older. I was 8 when i lit my first solo fire with a childproof bic and from there, kinda got addicted to fire so i know how to successfully build basically any type of fire, besides a magnifying lens, still cannot seem to get one past the ember stage.

All the child safety things you cite, they are risk mitigation, they don't save all lives per se - kids still get killed every day in car accidents, kids still incur brain injuries while biking with or without a helmet. A kid in a belted car seat is far more likely to survive a collision than one who is not, that's a fact - so use a car seat. And I can recommend that people wear knee and elbow pads while roller skating, its darmn hard to crack your elbow with them on than without them - take it from me on that simple one.

The nanny state may be whatever it is, but the world we live in now is far different than the world we grew up in - traffic is much, much thicker than it was in the 60s, when traffic moves relative speeds are up, and drivers are far more distracted today than they ever where back when. I have a fond memory from childhood, coming back from the doctor's, stopping at Jack in the Box for a burger treat, pulling out of the lot, a few moments later my mom stopped my body from hitting the windshield when the car ahead of us stopped abruptly. I can still remember the sensation of rising out of my seat, and being held back by mom's arm flung out to protect me. It seems like Mom's can always do that move, but we were traveling at probably less than 30 mph, her arm would be dislocated at 45 mph and worse would happen at a higher speed. Point being, environments change, kids will fly through windshields at high speeds in all generations, better technology comes along for personal protection,so use them.

"The nanny state may be whatever it is, but the world we live in now is far different than the world we grew up in..."

Yes, and many of the people are a lot dumber now, too.

It isn't the stuff as much as it is the mentality that now no one has to think, no one has to use any common sense, because someone else is doing the thinking.

The funny thing is that only certain things change, and others don't.

Maybe 20 yrs ago, some company invented a new type of brake light for cars where the lights would flash slowly if the driver applied the brakes gently, and the flashing would speed up the harder the driver pressed the brakes. They were installed on some NYC taxis (I guess that was the acid test ), because they were frequently being rear-ended because of some of their quick moves. No cabs were rear-ended in the test -- none. Do you see these on any cars? No. Because a rear-end accident is often severe enough to total the car, the driver has to buy a new car, and the car company makes more money. Profit always takes precedence over safety.

We've had a 'war on drugs' for how many years now, have dumped tons of money into it, we've lost more of our liberties because of it, and it's been totally ineffective. Yet it continues.

OTOH, we have drunk drivers killing people right and left, but our legislators don't want to draw a hard line there.

The difference? Many of our legislators drink like fish and don't want to be the victim of their own laws, but they do mostly stay away from drugs. And don't forget the profit motive.

Sue