Mustang Rambles

When I was young, on a cross-country ride, my son played in the back where the seats were down and he had plenty of room to lay down and stretch out in the trunk if he wanted to. He could also climb up to the front and sit on his knees so he could see out the window. He was allowed to move and play and in general, enjoy the trip.

My son recently returned from up north where he picked up a new car. He flew his six year old son up to enjoy the ride, and by happenstance, the child’s first snowfall and snowman. He mentioned that the ride back had been bad for the boy because he had had to sit in a booster seat for the entire fourteen hour ride. Booster seat? Had to be strapped in? What kind of macabre torture scheme is being foisted on us by our government? Isn’t this just as abusive as a parent spanking a child to keep them from doing something harmful? When did we lose control of how we raise our kids to the politically correct gang that believes no child should ever get hurt? Safety is one thing, but to take it to the extremes is another. Hey, let’s do that for a minute.

Let’s keep our children safe, totally safe from the evil things in their environment. First, no bicycles, skates, wagons, or baseball bats. No golf clubs, no basketballs, in fact, no balls that may bounce back and hurt them. No toys made of wood that may cause splinters, no toys with sharp metal edges, no toys of plastic that the child may chew on. No playing cards that might cause paper cuts, no playmates bigger than themselves, and no groups of more than three can play together because they might form a clique against one of themselves. No running, tumbling, or wrestling, or other contact sports, and no soccer, football, track (gotta watch those hamstrings), or swimming which means pools and drowning or at least swimmer’s ear. Must be careful also, no lone adult supervision, must be as least two at all times, and the child must not be left alone, he might do something like eat a bug and choke on it.

And that is just the beginning. When you finish, you no longer have a human being capable of facing adversity, danger, or failure. They will all be victims of Pre-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and will spend their adult life in therapy dealing with their phobias.

Our society is really beginning to suck.