Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Although I don't have children I just finished an excellent book called
Last Child in the Woods.  It discusses the downfall of kids being so
protected and frequently not being allowed to go out and be kids  like many
of us did.  To keep this endurance related somewhat by taking our chances
with horses as youngster, for example, by walking a horse across a field in
a halter and then trotting and then galloping we learned to take calculated
risks because there was no one there to save us.  We use this skill  to
navigate through life and as endurance riders every time we ride.  It isn't
just the gov. regs that keep kids sheltered, how many parents now allow
their kids to go trick or treating, and the  real life  numbers show that
the risk is extremely extremely low that they will receive "bad" candy. (ok
just an example that I thought of)  They do so because they have an
inflated fear of what could happen not what might really  happen.  Ok
getting hit by a car may be another issue but how many kids today don't
know to walk facing traffic or that cars are bigger then they are and when
one is coming they better move.

So kids learning to become endurance riders will make adults that know how
to be independent, take calculated risks and be self sufficient.  Its not
that kids aren't tough it is just that society turns them into weenies by
being over protective.


P.S I have no idea what started this thread but just saw a few of the
recent ones.
Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad
judgment.
Rita Mae Brown




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