Insulating Our Children

First it was dodge ball was unacceptable, now I'm reading the headline: School Bans Tag After Parents Complain. Seriously? Tag? Now, I understand that the occasional game of tag can get out of hand. It involves running and physical contact, and it's fun so kids can get a bit out of hand maybe tag too hard. Maybe a fight will even breakout over someone not wanting to play anymore or another kid falsely claiming that they weren't really tagged. They're kids their social skills aren't developed yet. Tag is a social game and so helps develop those skills, but a few kids don't enjoy it as much as others, or their parents perceive it that way, and we suddenly have to ban it outright. This is indicative of something very wrong with parenting and schools today, and this is surely only the beginning.
In the future, children will all be safe inside large protective plastic bubbles. These bubbles will have special voice filtering technology that will not allow the children to hear anything that their parents might not want them to hear. Children will be insulated from insults, friendly jibes, and anything that could potentially make them feel bad. In addition these fantastic bubbles will save them from having to have any kind of physical contact with another human being and protect them from oh so dangerous cuts and scrapes. The bubbles will also protect them from terrifying germs or catching the "common cold." In the future, our children will be completely safe from everything. As long as they stay in their bubbles. For even the slightest touch from a parent could be misconstrued as inappropriate. The future is going to be a wonderful place where every parent can have piece of mind and no child will ever feel.

Do you see where we're going here? Do people detect my meaning? Is this insanity bothering anyone else? Now, I'm all for protecting kids. You want to put rubber over corners so kids don't split their head open on the playground, that's great. If you want to discourage physical and verbal bullying, I'm with you. If you want to keep kids healthy, I am on your side. Let us not, however, start shrinking the physical/social skills building activities available to kids because we're afraid they might get hurt, feel bad, or be exposed to germs. Let's not hobble the children and thereby hobble the future of humanity. None of us wants to watch kids get hurt, but the sad truth is, they need to get hurt sometimes. Otherwise they'll never be prepared for their lives as adults.

As much as we'd like to, we can't protect them all the time, . The only way to come close is the future I was describing, a future where the kids are worse off for the paranoia and over-protectiveness that permeates our society today. It's bad for kids to shield them from the world too much. They've got to learn that there are nasty people out there who bully others and that they can get sick and they can get hurt sometime. It's better for them to learn how to deal with this as kids when you the parent can be there for them and help them through it.

If a kid is getting chased around and doesn't want to be they need to stand up for them selves. They need to learn how to say "I don't want to play" and walk away. The y need to learn when to engage an authority figure to help solve the problem. Kids need to learn how to deal with bullies and getting hassled, because the world outside of school is filled with those same people. Kids need to learn how to deal with that when they have parents and other adults on hand to help them, otherwise they will never be able to handle it, and I don't want to see that happen to the children in our country.