50 dangerous things you should let your child do

[Geckothan]

Play with fire - Oh I've done plenty of this. Done everything short of building things that make big bangs.
Drive a car - I didn't do this as a kid, but I did the odd few gear changes when I was little.
Own a pocketknife - Yep.
Superglue your fingers together - All the time, I used to build model kits. I purposely glue my fingers together today to toughen my fingertips up quickly when I've had a long break from guitar. Works real well, just don't let it cure...
Fry a CD in the microwave - Nope.
Put a 9 volt battery in your mouth - Plenty of times.

I was generally quite sensible up to the age of 13.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I did play with fire a bit. Somebody showed me that after shave was flammable, so I used to draw figures on the cellar floor with it and light them.

Now why the fuck did you have to go and tell me that

Anyone got any Burma Shave?

(Wiki it, young ones)

Heh. I forget what I used, except that it was blue and belonged to my Uncle Joe. He never seemed to miss it or wonder why it disappeared so quickly....

 

[Yeoman Randi]

The fire one was fun until I set my room on fire - mom felt compelled to tell everyone within earshot about that one! (It was still fun!) No widespread damage was done and I had to live in my room for the rest of my adolescence for my troubles!

(Maybe I should say I was allowed to live in my room opposed to being relegated to the dog house!)

Please tell me you didn't also wet the bed and kill small animals.......

 

[Yeoman Randi]

are drugs on the list?

Heh, yeah, i didn't do anything dangerous until i hit the age of 14. From then on it was the illegal kind of dangerous that i did...

Not sure i would agree with the author of that book. Honestly don't know how healthy some of those things are for kids!

 

[Brian]

I walked on the roof, superglued my fingers together, played with fire, owned a pocket knife, and licked a 9-volt battery.

I also took apart the alarm clock to see what made it work and found out when I got a jolt of 110VAC out of it.

I really want to try the "best CD trick ever" (thought it's not a CD, it's the clear spacer that comes on a spindle of CD-R's): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ie7JOY8ao4

If I was a kid, I think I would have already tried it. My closest analog was sticking a drinking straw in our kerosene heater when I was a kid and discovering the joys of melted plastic on your skin.

 

[John Picard]

I would add "lick dirt". Kid's immune system nowadays is weak and subject to allergies because they are not exposed to weak pathogens when they are young so they don't develop immunities.

One past time my son absolutely LOVED (as did I) was digging in the dirt. Heck, he's 15 and STILL loves to dig holes and paths down by my pond. When he was about 4 or 5, he and a friend would spend all day digging, driving trucks, etc and come to the house just covered from head to toe. The wives didn't freak, but they'd *tsk* like (most) women do, and promptly have them strip and into the tub.

From a young age, he was good about going after little garter snakes that I'd scare up while mowing the lawn, catching toads, and being in nature.

 

[KimMH]

The fire one was fun until I set my room on fire - mom felt compelled to tell everyone within earshot about that one! (It was still fun!) No widespread damage was done and I had to live in my room for the rest of my adolescence for my troubles!

(Maybe I should say I was allowed to live in my room opposed to being relegated to the dog house!)

Please tell me you didn't also wet the bed and kill small animals.......

wet the bed - not to my recollection - sometimes it's good to forget things though so I cannot swear for sure . . .

kill small animals - never! dig them up in the backyard while excavating for dinosaurs - our back 40 was full of archaeological digs! no dinos, but tons o' chipmunks and the hapless barbies I buried myself in hopes of eventually getting 11" skeletons - never did - only got moldy barbies!

 

[Mistral]

I think the point of the book is a good one-kids today are over-protected. I did all of those things-and more. I'm still here. Most of the scars have long since faded-and I have a fairly clear idea of my abilities and limitations. So no harm done.

 

[M'Sharak]

I did play with fire a bit. Somebody showed me that after shave was flammable, so I used to draw figures on the cellar floor with it and light them.

Now why the fuck did you have to go and tell me that

Anyone got any Burma Shave?

(Wiki it, young ones)

Burma Shave was shaving cream,
it wasn't after-shave.
But more than that, you've done forgot
the sequential roadside signs.
Burma Fail.

(No, it doesn't rhyme, but what do you want for free?)

Heh. I forget what I used, except that it was blue and belonged to my Uncle Joe. He never seemed to miss it or wonder why it disappeared so quickly....

Ice-blue Aqua-Velva (contained enough alcohol that people used to strain it through white bread and drink it, until the manufacturer added something to make it taste even worse. This is one your kids probably still shouldn't try.)

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I jumped out of a treehouse.... That didn't end well...

 

[trampledamage]

I don't remember doing any of those things. Except the pocket knife, I had one of those. I remember being fascinated when I was about five by the knife our next door neighbour's kid had, so I wanted one.

 

[ThankQ]

I did play with fire a bit. Somebody showed me that after shave was flammable, so I used to draw figures on the cellar floor with it and light them.

Now why the fuck did you have to go and tell me that

Anyone got any Burma Shave?

(Wiki it, young ones)

Burma Shave was shaving cream,
it wasn't after-shave.
But more than that, you've done forgot
the sequential roadside signs.
Burma Fail.

(No, it doesn't rhyme, but what do you want for free?)

Actually, it was a reading fail, not a Burma fail. I'm fully aware that Burma Shave was a cream, not an after-shave, but I did read the post incorrectly.

But I'm perfectly fine with calling a fail a fail.

This is one of your rare chances to pile on...

I can't specify, in this forum, to whom that is addressed, but you guys know who you are.

Dig it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Ice-blue Aqua-Velva (contained enough alcohol that people used to strain it through white bread and drink it, until the manufacturer added something to make it taste even worse. This is one your kids probably still shouldn't try.)

Aqua-Velva! How could I forget?

 

[KimMH]

I jumped out of a treehouse.... That didn't end well...

Treehouses! I truly pity any kid who didn't have a treehouse!

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

Is huffing white-out in there? Kids are missing out these days! Lol. Anyone remember the kids who did that?

 

[Kestra]

I would add "lick dirt". Kid's immune system nowadays is weak and subject to allergies because they are not exposed to weak pathogens when they are young so they don't develop immunities.

While studies have shown interesting data regarding 1st world vs 3rd world countries and incidents of people developing allergies, it's not as simple as you make it out to be. I played outside all the time when I was young, climbed trees with my brother and sister, etc. By the time I was in high school I had developed so many allergies I had to drop tennis because I couldn't even go outside for any length of time. My siblings, on the other hand, are just fine.

Then again, I don't think I would purposely have my child do things I deem particularly dangerous (many of the things mentioned in this thread are in fact, not all that dangerous). They'll find enough trouble to get up to in their own time!

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I would add "lick dirt". Kid's immune system nowadays is weak and subject to allergies because they are not exposed to weak pathogens when they are young so they don't develop immunities.

Indeed! This is one I'm always moaning about- people are so germ-obsessed that they actually cause more harm than good. They're so obsessed with cleanliness, when children should be getting dirty, as a by-product of playing around outside the way a child ought.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Then again, I don't think I would purposely have my child do things I deem particularly dangerous (many of the things mentioned in this thread are in fact, not all that dangerous). They'll find enough trouble to get up to in their own time!

Yeah, the only thing a parent should remember is not to overprotect their kids. Trying to get them to do specific dangerous things they did is just projecting themselves onto their kids.

 

[KimMH]

^ Somuch easier said than done! When I try to chase down my kid as he's pulling out of the driveway with his coat - my hubs will yell at me - !@#$%! Leave him alone! He's 21 fer Pete's sake !

 

[T'Girl]

When I was seven my uncle walked me down to the end of the street and let me shoot his .45, my thumbs hurt all day.

Had a pocket knife and carried it to school every day, you can't do that anymore.

Did "rock diving" you would pick up a ten pound rock, waddle to the edge of a low cliff (this is in Japan), swing the rock back and forth, throw the rock and yourself off the cliff and go straight down to the ocean bottom twenty - twenty-five feet deep.