Tag Too Dangerous

Off Topic
1

More evidence of the pussification of our children:

http://cbs4boston.com/local/local_story_290105157.html

When I was a kid we played “smear the queer”. Think rugby or American football but with no teams, everyone just tries to tackle the kid with the ball. We also played a game called “muckle” which was basically soccer (i.e. including goals and keepers), but you could carry the ball and score off a kick or throw. Tackling was also allowed. Similar to gaelic or aussie rules football but without the bouncing every 5 meters.

Both were great games and excessively violent and the most the teachers ever said was not to play near the rocks or on the pavement. Now, a short 15 years later, and tag is too dangerous for kids to play. What’s next? Force the kids to wear helmets when they’re at school? Perhaps we should give them all mittens so they don’t accidentally poke their own eyes out. Fingers can be dangerous you know. And don’t even get me started on those pointy pens and pencils (or do the kids all have laptops these days).

Seriously people, this kind of shit needs to be stopped. I know this country is law suit happy and schools are at high risk of getting sued for pretty much anything. But the children of today are going to end up a bunch of whiny sissies if this kind of thing is allowed to continue. Yes, tag involves running (oh no, we don’t want our kids to do that, they might not be fucking obese anymore) and physical interaction between children (dear god, they touch eachother? Oh the horror, it could inadvertantly be in an inappropriate manner!!).

Yes, there is a chance someone might fall down, or twist an ankle, or two kids might collide. Maybe even need a few stitches. Big fucking deal!!! Kids are kids. They get dirty, they get cuts, and scrapes and bruises. Most of them love to show off stitches and scars. We all did when we were younger. Our parents and their parents before them did too. And I can honestly say that I don’t know, nor have I ever heard of, a single person who claims to be worse off because they played tag as a child.

Please, if any of you are parents and your kids go to a school where things like this happen, complain. Go to a PTA meeting and make a scene. Hell, form a damn angry mob and run the principal out of town for all I care. But please, do something.

Things like this, and the classic “everybody wins, we don’t keep score” or the policy of not allowing teams to be picked in gym class for fear of upsetting the fat kids, are gradually destroying the competitive spirit in our youth. Kids no longer learn what it feels like to win or lose.

They grow up not being able to deal with a bruise or a scraped knee. We spend so much time and effort trying to shelter them from all the bad things in the world that they grow up with such a distorted world view they need years of therapy and heavy dosages of medications (don’t even get me started) just to cope with the most basic dissapointments in life. Admittedly, I may be exagerating a bit, but I’m pissed off. I can only hope I’m not alone in that.

Tag, you’re it,
Jay

2

I thought this was going to be about the body spray.

3

I agree with you. Its ridiculous.

The lack of toughness is already apparent. I have a friend who coached little kids wrestling for a while. I’d sometimes stop by during his practices. Its unreal how these kids cry at the drop of a hat. They’re relatively young so he sometimes lets them play dodge ball to get them to run around a little and give their brains a break from the wrestling techniques. All it takes is a decent throw connecting and the tears start coming. I can remember splitting kids glasses with dodge balls back in grade school and all they’d do is collect their glasses and move over to the side of the gym since they were out.

4

well said…and that about sums up my thoughts on what you wrote. except that i am seeing this happen more often too. i no longer see kids playing pick up football or street hockey anymore on the streets. they are inside because they might catch a cold outside. total bullshit, these kids are getting pussyfooted treatment and it needs to be stopped.

Tag-with my enclosed fist,

easy

5

[quote]nephorm wrote:
I thought this was going to be about the body spray.[/quote]

As did I. I thought it’d involve some sort od discovery how you really are just spraying estrogen on yourself. This plus the fact that all hot chicks are now lesbians, is why Tag "works.

To stay on topic this is ridiculous. This is the reason why when I have kids they are playing football as soon as possible. If schools won’t let our kids get beat up I’ll make sure I find somewhere he’ll get a nice dose of reality.

6

[quote]m0dd3r wrote:
When I was a kid we played “smear the queer”. Think rugby or American football but with no teams, everyone just tries to tackle the kid with the ball.[/quote]

We called that Kill The Carrier.

7

[quote]PGA200X wrote:
m0dd3r wrote:
When I was a kid we played “smear the queer”. Think rugby or American football but with no teams, everyone just tries to tackle the kid with the ball.

We called that Kill The Carrier.[/quote]

LOL. I almost just laughed really loud in class.

I used to call it kill the carrier, too. Smear the queer works, too.

8

[quote]PGA200X wrote:
m0dd3r wrote:
When I was a kid we played “smear the queer”. Think rugby or American football but with no teams, everyone just tries to tackle the kid with the ball.

We called that Kill The Carrier.[/quote]

yeah, I’ve heard it called lots of things, smear the queer, muckle, kill the carrier, bulldog, get the kid with the ball, backwards tag, etc… I think every region had it’s own name and possibly slightly different rules, but basically the same game.

I also used to love king of the mountain in the winter when the snow banks from the plow would get really tall in parking lots. What could be dangerous about a bunch of kids fighting over who gets to stand on top of a mound of snow and ice? Anyway, I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

Oh, and as for the body spray, it could be dangerous, the guys in the commercial are usually pretty skinny and end up getting tackled by a whole mob of girls. Could break a nail or something in the pileup.

I’m the king of the mountain,
Jay

9

Yeah, we called it Smeer the Queer too. But we also called it Creamo Sheemo! And it’s one of the best games ever. It taught kids to be tough. You wanted the ball. You knew you were going to get killed once you had it but that’s the point. To see how much of a beating you could take. To see if you were stronger than the other kids. It was bragging rights. But most of all it was fun with your friends. Outside, everyday after school no matter what the weather was like. If it was raining, you got wet. If it was cold, you put on an extra sweater. If it was too hot, well, I live in Wisconsin, it was never too hot. But you get my point.

If and when I have kids i’m going to kick them out of the house when they get home from school. I’m going to make them play outside and play with their friends. Hell, i’m going to be playing with them. No TV, no video games, no computer. Get your ass outside and do something. Or only one hour of tv, games, computer, and then get your lazy ass outside.

And don’t get me started on the always wearing protective gear crap. My sister makes her daughter wear a helmet when she’s on her razor scooter. A SCOOTER! It makes me sad and weep for the future of this great nation.

10

I agree with the original post. Too much laziness, coddling and hand holding. WTF is our public school system doing by cutting down on PE classes in order to “trim the budget” ? Whats the result? Fatter kids that are going to carry a higher than normal risk of cardio-vascular disease. I think Im going to go into Cardiology. All these fat kids are going to soon need Angioplasty!
Job security baby…

11

We also played “suicide”/bottoms up. You know, where you throw a ball against a wall and field it but if you bobble it you run to the wall and someone tries to hit you with the ball before you get there. Good times.

There’s nothing wrong with kids learning a little violence of action.

12

[quote]dre wrote:
If and when I have kids i’m going to kick them out of the house when they get home from school. I’m going to make them play outside and play with their friends. Hell, i’m going to be playing with them. No TV, no video games, no computer. Get your ass outside and do something. Or only one hour of tv, games, computer, and then get your lazy ass outside.
[/quote]

Agreed, computer and video games are great (hell, I’m a software developer, I spend more time on a computer than anybody) but there’s plenty of time for that when you grow up and get a job. Or on winter nights when it’s below zero out. I wish I had more time to get outside and run around these days.

I think it’s getting to the point now a days where kids honestly don’t know how to just go outside and play. Hell, when I was a kid my mom used to get mad because she’d have to come outside and find me to get me to come home for dinner and then again later on for bed. Now I’m amazed when I see a couple kids riding their bikes. They all seem to have so many scheduled activities that they don’t know how to just be kids. The only time most of them get outside anymore is saturday mornings for soccer or maybe one night a week for little league or pop warner football practice. Whatever happened to just riding your bike around, or running around playing in the woods (building forts is a lost art)?

[quote]
And don’t get me started on the always wearing protective gear crap. My sister makes her daughter wear a helmet when she’s on her razor scooter. A SCOOTER! It makes me sad and weep for the future of this great nation.[/quote]

Oh it’s bad. I went for a walk the other day and saw some kids playing street hockey in their driveway. No skates, just running. I stopped to watch for a few minutes and as I was watching the mother came out and yelled at one of the kids for not wearing his helmet and pads. She made him put on a bike helmet, elbow, and knee pads to run around the driveway with a hockey stick and tennis ball!!! I just don’t get it. On the plus side, I at least take pleasure in knowing that if I have children they’ll probably be the toughest little shits in their class :smiley:

You’ll shoot yer eye out,
Jay

13

It’s too dangerous to let kids go outside and play, but they won’t let you keep them inside and duct tape them to the wall for their own safety either.

Geez, you just can’t please anyone.

14

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
PGA200X wrote:
m0dd3r wrote:
When I was a kid we played “smear the queer”. Think rugby or American football but with no teams, everyone just tries to tackle the kid with the ball.

We called that Kill The Carrier.

LOL. I almost just laughed really loud in class.

I used to call it kill the carrier, too. Smear the queer works, too.[/quote]

Back in the day we called it “smear the queer” or “silver ball” because we made a ball out of Ho-Ho aluminum foil wrappers.

15

[quote]devilBASTARDdog wrote:
We also played “suicide”/bottoms up. You know, where you throw a ball against a wall and field it but if you bobble it you run to the wall and someone tries to hit you with the ball before you get there. Good times.

There’s nothing wrong with kids learning a little violence of action.[/quote]

We called that Butts Up!

16

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
rrjc5488 wrote:
PGA200X wrote:
m0dd3r wrote:
When I was a kid we played “smear the queer”. Think rugby or American football but with no teams, everyone just tries to tackle the kid with the ball.

We called that Kill The Carrier.

LOL. I almost just laughed really loud in class.

I used to call it kill the carrier, too. Smear the queer works, too.

Back in the day we called it “smear the queer” or “silver ball” because we made a ball out of Ho-Ho aluminum foil wrappers.[/quote]

We called it “smear the Queer” too.

This is freaking ridiculous! Boys (especially) are inherently drawn to “dangerous” games and activities. Hitting, wrestling, and all that great stuff are what boys are naturally inclined to do.

Take that away, and you have basically castrated them, telling them that “it’s not a ‘nice thing’ to be a boy. You should be a girl instead.”

Fathers should roughhouse with their boys…let the boys try to “beat the old buck”…and one day, the boy may accidentally draw blood from the dad…if the dad is encouraging “Hey, good hit,” the boy wills strut…“Shake their antlers”.

Boys need this kind of stuff or else they don’t learn what it’s like to be male.

I could go on and on and on…

17

We played Smear the Queer too until the teachers made us call it Kill the Man with the Ball. We also played another game we called Cherry. All the boys lined up on one end of the yard, and one was in the middle. All ran at once to the other end and the one in the middle tried to tackle as many as possible. Anyone who got tackled had to stay in the middle also. Then everyone else ran back to the other side until everyone was tackled.

Goal was to be the only one who didn’t get tackled. Talk about bragging rights being the last man standing not tackled. We had kids hurt at every recess. Once a kid broke his collarbone landing on the big tractor tires they used as sandboxes on one end of the playground after getting tackled into it. We had to not play for a week until the sandbox got moved. This was about 25 years ago I guess. That would never happen today. We’d probably all be suspended for playing.

18

Dodge ball is no longer allowed in public schools here in Oklahoma.

19

[quote]Jason B wrote:
We played Smear the Queer too until the teachers made us call it Kill the Man with the Ball. We also played another game we called Cherry. All the boys lined up on one end of the yard, and one was in the middle. All ran at once to the other end and the one in the middle tried to tackle as many as possible. Anyone who got tackled had to stay in the middle also. Then everyone else ran back to the other side until everyone was tackled.

Goal was to be the only one who didn’t get tackled. Talk about bragging rights being the last man standing not tackled. We had kids hurt at every recess. Once a kid broke his collarbone landing on the big tractor tires they used as sandboxes on one end of the playground after getting tackled into it. We had to not play for a week until the sandbox got moved. This was about 25 years ago I guess. That would never happen today. We’d probably all be suspended for playing.[/quote]

We played that too, but called it British Bulldog. That one was real popular with my Boy Scout troop. We played it indoors too, in a gym, but instead of tackling you had to lift the guy up in the air and yell “1 2 3 British Bulldog” then they joined you in the middle.

20

Smear the Queer, baby! Loved it. Freakin’ 10 or 15 guys all beating the crap out of each other and nobody really getting hurt. I remember playing A LOT of front yard tackle football also. Sometimes we’d play with those cheesie plastic NFL helmets and “pads” like you get at the Halloween section of WalMart. How did we ever survive? Every once in a while a really tough girl would join in.

Remember Army Dodgeball? If you got hit on the arm you had to put your arm behind your back. If you got hit on the leg you had to hop on one leg. Eventually you were lying on the ground, no arms or legs and rolling around to avoid being hit with a “fatal” blow to the head or torso. Oh, and we used soccer or volley balls that hit hard.

The problem is not the schools, it’s overprotective parents and parents looking for a reason to sue someone.