Brit kids failing to fall out of trees Brit kids are dismally failing to do themselves an injury in the time-honoured way, by falling out of trees, as they increasingly spend their time glued to video games, the Sun has revealed. According to shock figures obtained by the paper, a healthy 1,796 youngsters aged 15 and under required treatment for tree-related damage …
The sun article mixes numbers with percentages where it wants to. Yes it gives a massive drop of 911 tree falls. Fine!
But how much is the 60% increase in RSI injuries in real terms? It can be as little (with no rounding) as 8 from 5! Which in this case is too small to be of concern.
Come on Sun, spit the REAL figures out and show us how you really doctored the figures!
So thumb blisters become the new scars? ROFL.
Interesting The Sun picks up on this story, bemoaning the lack of "a proper childhood" on one hand, while instilling fear of a paedogeddon in their readership. So what will The Sun do now, encourage parents to let their children play outside and fall, or keep them indoors safe from paedophiles but risking RSI (and psychotic tendencies if Daily Mail is to believed) from their video games.
..."Go out and play." It's a survival thing; in Northern latitudes, if you are light skinned, you NEED 15 minutes of sunlight per day in order to prevent rickets and other vitamin D related diseases.
The lack of exercise is another issue, surely not healthy either.
I was shocked to read in The Reg that vitamin D is not added to milk in the UK. Is there any movement to correct this?
I wonder if they are including Wii-related injuries in their 'console games'. That could increase the numbers.
It could also be an increase in masturbation due to the availability of streaming porn. If the doctor says, 'do you play a lot of computer games,' you will likely answer 'yes' rather than 'no, I just wank a lot'.
The Sun reports that kids are going to get injured. Whether by almost killing themselves or by ruining thier future.
With this news, parents all over the country lock the kids in the bedroom, as they can no longer trust the uncles/aunts/cousins/neighbour/teacher/religious leader to be involved in their upbringing. No TV, No Games.
Government enacts new law to prevent parents becoming potential Josepf Fritzl's and removes all children to care homes and then charges the parents the Maintainance tax.
Couples stop having children, children poorly educated and emotionally crippled become criminals.
They rob the rich, which leads to a new lew which forces criminals into labor camps. Crims work long hours for no pay. Rich get richer as UK productivity soars. Crims get fed up riot and are gassed.
With no one to do the work the rich get poorer and end up robbing the richer people. They become crims. Work and then gassed. Everybody in UK is gassed.
I like this story. Can I claim copyright for this?
They don't know what their missing, which in my case was a 4 inch long, 2 inch deep scratch courtesy of the corner of a wooden box under the tree from which I fell. I still remember the nurse putting her fingers in to clean it and throwing the swabs in the bin. Then the one who sewed it up did nothing but complain that my skin was too tough and she had problems getting the needle through. The thing that suprises me to this day is that with such a hole there was no blood loss even though I've since seen worse wounds without blood.
Before accusing video games, I'd focus more on, "How many kids are allowed to go out and play without adult supervision any more?"
Modern drivers are so intent on being distracted that sending out your child alone is like a death wish. I let my 8-year-old (yes, 8!) cross the street to the park for the first time a few weeks ago. He looked both ways, started across, and then was nearly clipped by a white SUV that ran a stop sign, apparently with the intent of teaching my son not to try to cross the street alone. Fortunately, my son was alert and jogged backwards out of its path, but after literally dozens of incidents where drivers have ignored the fact that there are kids in the crosswalk while I've been walking them to school, there's no way I'm going to let them cross any major streets on their own. (Lights and crosswalks don't help -- in California drivers can and do turn on red right into pedestrians).
Virtually all parents around here are like me: You can't let your kids go anywhere on their own, because the drivers just don't care. So you go with them. Unfortunately, most parents (unlike me) won't let their kids take risks. (I figure if it isn't going to kill them, then it's a valuable learning experience. Bizarrely, my kids are the best tree- and structure-climbers in the neighborhood. Go figure). Thus, fewer injuries.
Very simple. And nothing to do with video games. (Unless you count the ones that the drivers are playing while behind the wheel).
"was nearly clipped by a white SUV that ran a stop sign"
Teach your son to do what I do when "near missed" by an SUV in the crosswalk: haul back with your hand and give it a good whack on the flank. You'd be surprised how quickly they stop when they think they've hit something.
Last time I did it, the guy rolled down his window and before he could open his mouth, my wife let him have it loud and clear. He mumbled an apology and drove off.
I'm a bit tired of folks who are so busy gabbing on the phone that they forget to stop for pedestrians.
My son weighs 45 pounds (20 kilos to you Easterners). An enraged SUV driver weighs in at around 230 (male or female). Not a conflict I'd like to bet on...
...on the other hand, my son's a darned fast runner, and my wife's getting her black belt this year, so maybe it would add to my entertainment. How many blokes are going to admit getting whooped by an enraged mom after almost running over her kid?
...and of course, how many SUV drivers could run the entire block to chase my son back to my house?
You're right about that. Although in our neighbourhood, it was helicopter Mums, so the Dads all got together and told the Mums, (nicely), to back off and let our boys fall over and skin their knees. We didn't want to raise a bunch of soppy Mummy's boys. They took it in good spirit on the whole, and there haven't been any really serious accidents. Apart from one one lad who *cough* fell out of a tree. Only a broken wrist tho'
Along with the aforementioned valid points about skill, weather and so on consider how many kids have access to trees? And cultural willingness to do stupid things (like climbing trees) while not on friendly turf (like your own garden). If the kids don't consider it "their" tree they might not be so inclined to climb it.
OMG you mean that kids *aren't* falling out of trees anymore? =8O
Right, the little gits next door are gonna get marched to the nearest oak, forced to climb it and then have pot-shots taken at them until they fall out. I could even charge for that...might even make a bit of money... Bwuhahahaha
More indicators, as if they were needed, of a broken Britain. I'm getting the next plane out of here before the Eco police ban them.
When oh-so important people are charged with "protecting us" from ourselfes; and
When gardens and greenspace are buldozed over to develop housing on because it's more profitable in the short term than the higher standard of living it destroysl
When instant gratification is promoted well above achievement and hard work;
Is it any wonder people say Britain is Broken.
Around here you're liable to get nicked for indulging in a bit of tree climbing... really!
From about 3 years ago
"Children arrested, DNA tested, interrogated and locked up... for playing in a tree."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-397240/Children-arrested-DNA-tested-interrogated-locked--playing-tree.html
I want to start grabbing kids off the street, taking them to a high place*, and hurling them off, to redress these disturbing trends.
There is no improper intent, and I would be doing it to provide them with a fuller life experience.
I wont even ask payment for this act of community service.
Perhaps we could form an organisation that does this nationwide, although you cant trust anyone who actually wants to work with kiddies.
*not a tree, I would probably do myself an injury trying to get the little darlings up a proper tree.
Dear Sirs,
What on earth is wrong with children today? My generation gave Johnny Foreigner a trouncing in two world wars and we were made of sterner stuff. We spent our happy childhoods breaking arms, legs and skulls by falling out of trees, being run over by motorcars and playing with unexploded bombs.
There is no discipline today, that's the trouble. If we were caught scrumping, there was always a good old British bobby to clip us round the ear with his trusty truncheon: far from complaining to the IPCC like nambie-pambies, our mums and dads laughed off the resultant brain damage. And, for any sissies who blubbed, there was always a smiling priest on hand to take them into the vestry for a good sound buggering.
Today's mollycoddled young people don't know they're born!
Yours against the Hun,
Sir H Gusset (Rtd)
The Old Charnel House, Lesser Frogmarching, Somerset
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