Keeping your children in factory-fresh condition

Fifth

Fifth

I know we're all tired of hearing about yet another school implementing some ridiculous nanny state rule, but I just have to vent :mad:

The age-old practice of doing a handstand or a cartwheel is now considered too dangerous for children without supervision at a Sunshine Coast state school.

Peregian Springs State School told parents in its latest newsletter that under no circumstances were students allowed to perform cartwheels, handstands or any other type of gymnastic move at school, "unless they are properly supervised by a trained PE teacher".
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We spend so much time worrying about how fat/obese and inactive children are getting and this school wants to ban handstands and cartwheels, physical activity that kids have enjoyed for generations to no ill effect.

In primary school, I spent many a lunch break doing handstands and cartwheels (was never much good at cartwheels but excelled at handstands). I have never even heard of a child being seriously injured from doing a handstand or cartwheel. Who are these lunatics?

I say we should just wrap children in bubblewrap and feed them so much they're physically incapable of doing a handstand. Then all will be well in the world.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...crackdowns-on-cartwheels-20140902-10b827.html
 
Fifth said:
Has a parent ever successfully sued a school for an injury incurred by their child during recess whilst doing a cartwheel? I really hope not.
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You'd be surprised. All this nanny state stuff stems from a few law suits. It's not that hard to imagine....kid does cartwheel recklessly on a concrete surface at school, kid gets injured seriously (breaks neck etc), parent sues school for breaching duty of care, school settles/loses case, insurers ask school to implement PC policy.
 
lets vote on how many years until you get banned/sued for having ugly children, the mental damage your kids cause when other kids look at them and get scarred for life......

lucky they didnt have any laws like that around when I was growing up, cos my parents would have been sued every day of the week
 
Aaron_C said:
You'd be surprised. All this nanny state stuff stems from a few law suits. It's not that hard to imagine....kid does cartwheel recklessly on a concrete surface at school, kid gets injured seriously (breaks neck etc), parent sues school for breaching duty of care, school settles/loses case, insurers ask school to implement PC policy.
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Lawyers truly did inherit the earth.
 
Fifth said:
I know we're all tired of hearing about yet another school implementing some ridiculous nanny state rule, but I just have to vent :mad:



We spend so much time worrying about how fat/obese and inactive children are getting and this school wants to ban handstands and cartwheels, physical activity that kids have enjoyed for generations to no ill effect.

In primary school, I spent many a lunch break doing handstands and cartwheels (was never much good at cartwheels but excelled at handstands). I have never even heard of a child being seriously injured from doing a handstand or cartwheel. Who are these lunatics?

I say we should just wrap children in bubblewrap and feed them so much they're physically incapable of doing a handstand. Then all will be well in the world.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...crackdowns-on-cartwheels-20140902-10b827.html
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The problem is the repercussions.

The problem is the parents - they can now freely sue the school because little Johnny hurt his knee and all this other BS - the school has "a Duty of Care" and so on.

It's bloody insane.

And; do you know who the worst parents are?

Bloody WASP Aussie parents.

And, now there is no shortage of ambulance-chasing Law firms willing to fight the good fight for the poor neglected, unsupervised kids of course.

You wanna see the cr@p we have to fill out for our 13 year old and 5 year old these days for everything from excursions, to permission to get on the school bus, to permission for photos to be published etc.

Lawyers are destroying the world; and we are helping them do it.
 
All this cotton-balling is only going to give us a generation of self-absorbed kids afraid to take risks. Heck, next thing you know, kids might start putting selfies on social media and committing suicide when people make fun of it.

When I was in kinder this kid punched another kid in the mouth (lots of blood, etc). Teacher told the two of them to stop mucking around and wash the damn blood off his mouth.

Broke my arm in primary school (fell several metres onto concrete), teacher told me to stop my damn crying (I was 7) and get up, and drove me to the hospital. She also said it was my own fault for breaking my arm (it was) and I was a moron.

Also in primary school, we had a camp counselor who brought a huge knife to "cut anyone who misbehaved", and also gave us smokes and drank his own p*ss for a dare. We thought he was the coolest guy ever, although in retrospect I wonder if he was serving some sort of community order.

Good times...but some of those events may not have been too positive. Lot of sexism, racism and other bigotry, and bullying/hazing could be quite severe. I remember one incident where this kid actually spat his entire mouthful of food at another kid's face. Ashamed to admit I was one of the people laughing, but in retrospect I wonder if the victim may still carry the scars.
 
bob246810 said:
Broke my arm in primary school (fell several metres onto concrete), teacher told me to stop my damn crying (I was 7) and get up, and drove me to the hospital. She also said it was my own fault for breaking my arm (it was) and I was a moron.

Also in primary school, we had a camp counselor who brought a huge knife to "cut anyone who misbehaved", and also gave us smokes and drank his own p*ss for a dare. We thought he was the coolest guy ever, although in retrospect I wonder if he was serving some sort of community order.
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im lost for words, thats just dumb!
 
It's awfully easy to blame the lawyers, but we need to look at ourselves first. Lawyers don't see themselves as the arbiters of what should and should not be recoverable - they should not take cases where they think the case is frivolous, or vexatious, or if there is something unethical going on. Other than that it is not up to the lawyer to decide to sue or not - that is the client's call.

It's the same in family law stuff - the lawyer might deplore the decisions that their client makes, but the lawyer doesn't get to make decisions for the client.

We have an entitlement culture. A kid falls in the playground, breaking their wrist. Second thing parent thinks about (after, presumably, worrying about their kid) is 'Can I make some money out of this?'

I'm not saying lawyers are blameless - they're not, and they need to take more responsibility - but the real problem is that the natural next step for most people is to sue. Nothing is an accident anymore - everything has to be someone's fault...
 
OK, so I googled 'school sued over handstand', curious to see if there were any cases.

I didn't find any cases during my brief browse but apparently a bunch of schools have banned handstands/cartwheels/somersaults for fear of litigation, as well as a bunch of other ridiculous stuff like high fiving.

This article I found interesting. The article claims though the schools' fear of litigation is justified, the chances of being successful sued are remote.

Apparently there were some tort reforms in 2002 which were brought in to combat these wishywashy lawsuits. I guess some schools still aren't prepared to risk the bother?

http://theconversation.com/banning-cartwheels-school-litigation-fears-are-unfounded-9140
 
MaggieMcT said:
It's awfully easy to blame the lawyers, but we need to look at ourselves first. Lawyers don't see themselves as the arbiters of what should and should not be recoverable - they should not take cases where they think the case is frivolous, or vexatious, or if there is something unethical going on. Other than that it is not up to the lawyer to decide to sue or not - that is the client's call.

It's the same in family law stuff - the lawyer might deplore the decisions that their client makes, but the lawyer doesn't get to make decisions for the client.

We have an entitlement culture. A kid falls in the playground, breaking their wrist. Second thing parent thinks about (after, presumably, worrying about their kid) is 'Can I make some money out of this?'

I'm not saying lawyers are blameless - they're not, and they need to take more responsibility - but the real problem is that the natural next step for most people is to sue. Nothing is an accident anymore - everything has to be someone's fault...
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Completely agree. Lawyers, distasteful as they can sometimes be, are merely providing a service for which there is much demand. It's a sad indictment of our society.
 
Fifth said:
This article I found interesting. The article claims though the schools' fear of litigation is justified, the chances of being successful sued are remote.
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The problem now too is we see every day in the media stories of ridiculous law-suits all over the world..

The other problem with a law suit is the time involved and stuffing around to go through the legal steps - plus the cost.

Lawyers don't work for you for free.

Noone can afford all that in our busy lives.

The whole thing now is about prevention, rather than cure, but has gone PC mad.
 
Last time I tried to do a handstand (2007) I nearly snapped both wrists.... but then it's been a while :D

Fear of litigation gone mad in schools.... sure is a different life from the days when the headmistress nun in my school would walk around flexing her bamboo cane, in search of a child just looking for trouble :eek:
 
Jacque said:
Fear of litigation gone mad in schools.... sure is a different life from the days when the headmistress nun in my school would walk around flexing her bamboo cane, in search of a child just looking for trouble :eek:
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I enjoyed the sting of the cane, and strap, and even the 1 metre blackboard ruler numerous times as a school kid.

Last one was in Year 10 - two swipes across the hand with a cane.

Nowadays; it'd be an assault charge or something similar? :rolleyes:

I got the electric frying pan cord, and feather duster - across the legs - by both Mum and my Auntie as a little kid....we all did in our family.

And no; I don't flog my own kids when they do wrong because of my upbringing....
 
We still had the cane wrapped in electric tape in primary school, it wasn't used by that time however.

Welcome to bubble wrap society, where everything comes down to the minimisation of harm to the point of complete destruction of living an enjoyable and varied life.

The Fun Police will no doubt ban pointy edges, steep slopes and walking without knee pads and helmets before you know it.

And Australian's keep lapping it all up, privately complaining about the sillyness of society, but fully endorsing any measure introduced.
 
Here's a couple for ya's;

When living in the USA -

1. I was sitting on the top rail of a two-rail steel tubing hand rail type fence on a ramp...both feet off the ground, resting them on the middle rail - I was in my mid-40's.

A security guard came over and said; "Scuse me, Sir; you need to get down off the rail".

2. I was watching a jazz quartet (yes; I actually do have a modicum of culture! :D) with some friends.

I had my then 5 year old son sitting legs astride my head, up on my shoulders.

A security guard came over and said; "Scuse me Sir; you need to take your child down from your shoulders"

I completely baulked at this one, refused to comply, and within a minute there were a mere 4 more security guards there, and were prepared to evict me unless I took him down from my shoulders.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
But then you go the other extreme (ie. any non-First World country), and you have buildings collapsing and killing dozens of people, and the victims' families get no compensation (because they're poor and have no political connections). Or some teacher caning a student so hard he actually dies. Or someone running you over with a truck and getting away with it because they're related to the local Party commissar.

People complain about Australia being a nanny state, but I doubt they'll survive outside the cotton walls.
 
PC gone mad,i remember growing up riding motor bikes,having a bb gun,having crackers and bonfires.At school we had the cane and parents hit you,if you done the wrong thing.It's crazy and getting worse.
 
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