Babies Bounce

[Weird Harold]

I was always a helthy kid growing up. Hell, no matter what I was exposed, ...

I had measles, mumps, chickenpox, and all of the other (childhood) diseases that modern children are innoculated against. (Mumps was responsible for one of those 105F+ incidents.) Colds and Flus went from sibling to sibling and around again every winter.

Still, neither I nor my five siblings were considered "sickly" by he standards of the day.

 

[fieryjen]

I'm glad my parents were smart and realized that I needed to be exposed to some germs, even as a baby. I'll do it the same with my kids.

So often this country's obsession with cleanliness warrants a WTF?

 

[Chantilyvamp]

I was always a helthy kid growing up. Hell, no matter what I was exposed, until my thirties, I always came away unscathed. And then, I suppose, it all caught up with me.

Maybe there's a point at which uprbringing fails before the natural decomposition of age.

I agree with that one.

I have a couple of nephews that are 6 and 7 and the younger one was wiped up so much that he wont even eat a piece of sausage with his fingers and if anything gets on his hands while he is eating he has to have it cleaned off. At school if he doesnt think he is getting his hands clean enough he breaks out into hysterics. The dont get to take a lot of risks on the playground and arent allowed to have certain things in their yard like swings. Swings freak his mom and grandmother out. They dont want them on them because they might get hit by the swing. And I keep thinking by 7 I could swing extremely high and jump out without killing myself!

 

[Vermilion]

I agree with that one.

I have a couple of nephews that are 6 and 7 and the younger one was wiped up so much that he wont even eat a piece of sausage with his fingers and if anything gets on his hands while he is eating he has to have it cleaned off. At school if he doesnt think he is getting his hands clean enough he breaks out into hysterics. The dont get to take a lot of risks on the playground and arent allowed to have certain things in their yard like swings. Swings freak his mom and grandmother out. They dont want them on them because they might get hit by the swing. And I keep thinking by 7 I could swing extremely high and jump out without killing myself!

Wow - can we spell O.C.D Ladies and Gentlemen?

Sheesh, I use vinegar and lemon juice to do most of my cleaning. it gets the grease and dirt off and kills the worst bugs. Also gives the taps a lovely shine

Shame I was pumped so full of anti-biotics as a kid... I resist them vigorously unless absolutely necessary nowadays.

x
V

 

[impressive]

Not only do some parents coddle their kids' immune systems, but I also believe (as the original post implied) that they coddle their kids emotionally.

I am a firm believer in the resilience of children. I'm not saying we should toss our kids into emotional battlegrounds, but rather that we should trust them to face the battles life throws at them. Coddling leads to self-esteem issues, IMO, and as adults the whining about not being good enough, strong enough, fast enough, enough enough is so fucking unattractive.

 

[Guest]

I don't know.

There are different sides to this theory. As someone who was born in the Third World and is now living in the Middle East, two places known to be dirrrrty, such arguments make me raise an eyebrow.

So yes, we can afford to "expose" our children to germs, cause we don't have malaria, tapeworms, crazy flies and other scary stuff lying around.

Another side of this is that a lot of research on degenerative diseases today focuses on the role of active infections. The bottom line is: the less infections you had, the longer and better you live.

Some food for thought,

Maharat

 

[buxxxom]

So where's the middle ground? How much should parents clean, and to what lengths should they let kids get dirty?

there was a time in which I was expecting a child to come into this world, and my head was full of conflicting ideas regarding how to care for him. How often to bathe? How often to change the down in the crib?

At work, I see a lot of little kids, many of whom have a pacifier in their mouth. Often, the pacifier pops out, hits the ground, and my first instinct is to take the damn thing to the back and wash it off. What I've found interesting is that the Mexicans (the rich ones who come here for shopping) don't bother with cleaning the pacifier. They just wipe it with their fingers and pop it back in. It's the locals who insist on having it washed.

I see more sick local kids than I do Mexicans.

My goal is to strive for the illusion of clean, rather than clean itself. In my home, I stand a greater chance of tripping over someones shoe/backpack/textbook/etc. than I do contracting a communicable disease.

It was my practice when my kids were small to take their pacifier when they dropped it, run it through my own mouth to get off any grit which I could then spit out, and pop it back in.

 

[slyc_willie]

Not only do some parents coddle their kids' immune systems, but I also believe (as the original post implied) that they coddle their kids emotionally.

I am a firm believer in the resilience of children. I'm not saying we should toss our kids into emotional battlegrounds, but rather that we should trust them to face the battles life throws at them. Coddling leads to self-esteem issues, IMO, and as adults the whining about not being good enough, strong enough, fast enough, enough enough is so fucking unattractive.

When I was eleven, I got picked on all the time by this one older boy. It started with needling and name-calling, then he began shoving me around in school. Finally, one day, he punched me when i dared to call him a name. The kid was sent home immediately and suspended for a day.

Now, being the good student and good kid that I was, I didn't hit back. Not to mention I was afraid of a kid a good two years, a few inches, and quite a few pounds heavier. Of course, that meant that other kids started making fun of me, saying that I was a wimp and so forth.

When my father saw me that afternoon, he asked how I got the bruise on my jaw. So I told him what happened, and he asked why I didn't hit the boy back. i told him I was afraid that he or my mother would be upset because I had been fighting, and I would have been suspended as well.

Then my dad told me that, the next time the boy tried to hit me, I had his full blessing to hit him back. But I wasn't to start anything or hit first.

Two days later, the other boy was back in school. Right away, he started picking on me, calling me a wimp and a fag, etc. Even though we were in the halls, there weren't any teachers around, so he took a swing at me. Hit me right in the side of the head.

So now everyone's staring, some people are laughing, someone starts calling for a teacher. But before the teacher got there, I balled up my fist and punched the prick square on the nose. I swear, it was like one of those single-serve creamers being squashed, the way his nose spurted.

I got sent home right away. My dad picked me up an hour later and we got some ice cream.

The bully never bothered me again.

My parents never believed in coddling me emotionally. If there was a problem, I had to deal with it, period, or suffer. If it was a problem outside my control, that was a different matter. My parents weren't the best in the world, but they did teach me self-reliance.

 

[slyc_willie]

I don't know.

There are different sides to this theory. As someone who was born in the Third World and is now living in the Middle East, two places known to be dirrrrty, such arguments make me raise an eyebrow.

That's an exellent point, and one I didn't think of. Naturally, what we've been talking about concerns kids in developed nations. Third world countries are a different matter.

 

[fifty5]

There are different sides to this theory. As someone who was born in the Third World and is now living in the Middle East, two places known to be dirrrrty, such arguments make me raise an eyebrow.

Hi Maharat,

I spent a few months in Karachi, so I know a bit of what you're talking about. In "The West" it's still an issue, despite the validity of the very different issues where you live.

Respect,