Comment by karatestomp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by karatestomp | Hacker News Reader

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We let ours play outside plenty, and there are quite a few other kids out. Does seem to be neighborhood-dependent, though, all kinda have their own culture. Our current one's less free-range than the last, which had big ol' gangs of kids with large age-ranges roaming around, and was great.

We are fairly worried about 1) eventually having some kind of encounter with child protective services—which will likely end up fine, if it happens, but will also probably be really inconvenient and stressful—and 2) injuries that end up giving us yet another opportunity to play everyone's favorite game, Medical Billing Roulette, especially now that they're riding bikes. Multiple kids, just a matter of time until one of them get a hospital trip out of a bad fall. Odds very low they'll all make it to 18 without at least one broken bone.

God damn do I wish we'd fix healthcare in the US. It's crazy how much background stress & anxiety that causes across just about all activities and choices. And that's with insurance.

[EDIT] although I'm pretty sure the "playing outside" thing tapers off around tween/teen ages in a way it didn't for us, when they all start living on social media. :-/

> Odds very low they'll all make it to 18 without at least one broken bone.

I consider broken bones to be an integral part of childhood. Well, for boys anyway.

If you make it to 18 without a broken bone, you probably should have spent more time outside.

I haven’t broken any bones. My parents were up and coming immigrants with their own business, but not successful enough to afford health insurance (pre ACA, but not post ACA either), and there weren’t poor enough for Medicaid.

So my dad was clear to me that any injuries could cause us to have medical expenses that would derail us and my younger sibling’s future as well as the aging grandparents my parents were taking care of.

So I didn’t partake in activities that could have broken bones, but that is the hand my parents and I and others like us are dealt in the great old US of A.

And don't you think that's a horrible situation to be in?

It's completely foreign to me that there exists a first-world country where you need to bar your child from certain activities solely due to concerns over potential medical costs.

That's not a criticism of your parents - their decision was completely logical in the circumstances. It's just a fundamental flaw in the US system.

Of course it’s a bad situation. Just explaining why some kids may not have had broken bones.

If you’re not in the upper class or extremely poor class in the US, there is no safety net, so if you want any chance of clawing your way up to having the various securities of life, you have to play it safe.

I’m sure you’re making a general statement, but breaking a bone is pretty traumatic and the complications can be quite serious. I hope my kids never experience a broken bone.

That said, I spent my childhood outside and never broke a bone myself, but my brother did and ended up having to wear orthotics the rest of his life and routinely experiences discomfort as a result. So, my advice, don’t limit your kids, but teach them to be careful at the same time.

I’m pretty sure if one of my kids break a bone, I’m going to be a wreck.

EDIT: Your comment about boys breaking bones more than girls is ridiculous, as a parent with a daughter who loves risk taking, I can assure you it’s not a boy vs girl problem.

> EDIT: Your comment about boys breaking bones more than girls is ridiculous, as a parent with a daughter who loves risk taking, I can assure you it’s not a boy vs girl problem.

"The lifetime risk of sustaining a fracture in childhood is approximately 42%-64% in boys and 27%-40% in girls, with remarkable variation in the estimates worldwide [1-4]. While fractures more often occur in males, girls usually sustain fractures at a younger age compared to boys"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987399/

No broken bones here before 18, I grew up on a farm, had access to many machines (bikes, quads, tractors, cars, go karts). Spent huge amounts of time outside and liked to try more and more dangerous things partly due to be somewhat isolated, some of which would have done more than just broken a bone.

There's always exceptions to every rule. That's why I said "probably".

I like the sentiment, but there's several factors here, including inherent "agility" and of course luck.

I never broke a bone as a kid, and not only spent half my youth outdoors but was a daredevil.

Summer: Tree climbing, as high as 50'. Constant bike riding on and off road, skateboarding, go carts, dirt-bikes (hill climbs, jumps), jungle gym, stilts, pogo sticks, trampolines, swings, water-skiing, touch football, street hockey, basketball, and soccer.

Winter: Flexible flyer sledding on steep hills with frequent collisions and wipe-outs (that was half the fun), snowmobiles, tubing, skiing, skitching (when streets are snowy/icy you hold on to a car's bumper and hitch a ride)

One of my own kids has the daredevil streak also and built huge jumps for bikes in summer and snowboards in winter. They'd jump over cars.

No broken bones (lacerations, bruises, sprains however)

On the other hand, I saw a kid break his leg at 2 mph by falling off his bike against a curb.

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