"Johann S." wrote:
>
> Arpit Said:
>
> > >"He's an 8-year-old child. He does not understand what the right of way is," She said.
Then he has no business being outside alone.
> > >-----
> > >Gee, I wonder why this kid rides his bike in such an unsafe manner?
>
> You Americans are crazy. (Probably the whole damn world is.) Where are the days where a kid could
> just ride his bike and have fun without worrying about helmets and **** like that? Maybe it's too
> crowded over there.
No matter how uncrowded it is here it's too crowded. The helmet question is irrelevant if your chest
gets run over by a car and too much red wet stuff squirts out.
> When I was a kid, there wasn't any such thing as helmets, and I jumped my BMX over many a dirt
> heap, sometimes over a dirt heap and into the neighbours well manicured flowerbed. That was fun,
> but the neighbour didn't think so.
The problem here is that the kid jumped out into traffic, not into your neighbor's flowerbed. An
8-year-old ought to have more sense than that, and giving up his savings and the rest of his
allowance until the ticket is paid off is an especially good way of acquiring some at a fairly
low price.
There's no hope for his mom, though, so I hope that somebody just slaps her silly.
> Had some close encounters with cars too, but those were mostly in my skateboard days. (no helmet
> either).
>
> Anyway, I'm very glad I'm not a kid today, and especially in the US (it seems). Must be pretty
> boring. Maybe I would have decided to stuff all these rules, and just play playstation. It's much
> more fun than driving miss daisy with a bloody helmet on.
>
> PS: I have nothing against helmets, I even own one. (Don't wear it very often though) My point is
> with all the rules and regulations these days, it must be boring to be a kid.
There's a general feeling that it's no longer safe for a kid to play anywhere without an adult in
close attendance. Damn shame, because kids NEED to learn to be alone and unsupervised sometimes. You
ride/drive around in the suburbs and you never see kids out playing. You see lots of gardeners,
people jogging (sometimes pushing a sport-stroller with a kid in it), and a few bicyclists.
It used to be neat to ride out Xmas morning and see all the kids with their new bicycles. Been a
long time since that happened.
--
Cheers, Bev
************************************************************
"Let them eat ****."
-- Marcel Antoinette, Marie's little-known brother