Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tag, you're too aggressive


I saw this article today in the newspaper and thought it was interesting. Basically this elementary school principal has outlawed tag from her school, claiming it had become a game of "intense aggression." Granted, I don't have a kid in elementary school yet, but I don't really see what the big deal is with a little bit of intense aggression during recess. For some reason this article reminds me of thumbing through the One Step Ahead catalog and seeing the ads for the shampoo visor and thinking 1) Whatever happened to just telling your child "close your eyes"? and 2) How have I been washing my kids' hair this long without a shampoo visor? What kind of mother am I?
I feel the same way about this tag thing...whatever happened to letting your kids get a few scrapes and bruises on the playground? Isn't that pretty much what childhood is all about? Come to think of it, isn't that what life is all about? Is there a shampoo visor for every aspect of childhood these days?
What do you think? If you have a shampoo visor, it's time to fess up.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would definitely say my kids go to the school of "hard knocks". I try to let them work out their own disagreements and make up as many of their own rules around the house as possible. I think they have to have gradual control over their own lives and the only way to do that is to allow them some "natural" consequences. Maybe the kids playing tag and getting hurt will decide they don't like that game anymore and will join the "4-square" crowd. At least they've gained some confidence about their own ability to solve a problem. We're going to need some serious problem-solvers in the near future!!

I guess I feel pretty strongly about the dangers of overprotective parenting.

Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Hear, hear! I had a moment of doubt about a different bathtub product the first time Talia bonked herself on the faucet--I wondered, what kind of mother am I not to have a foam animal on there protecting her--but the truth is that we have only one bathtub and I really didn't want a foam animal on the faucet, and after that bonk, she pretty much figured out how to do all of the bathtime essentials (tonight: pretending to be a rhinocerous) out of bonking range.

Off-topic: is your dad or father-in-law (sorry I forgot which) still doing a haiku blog? He might be interested in this (pizza) pie-ku contest in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041500742.html?sub=AR

Phillips Family said...

I wonder if the outlawing (is that a word?) of tag is the result of having to field tons of calls by angry parents because their sweet susie became injured. after working in a school, i discovered that many of these silly rules are usually the result of getting parents off teachers and principals backs. Sad that kids can't enjoy tag anymore...perhaps they can all sit around and text each other during recess!

As for the shampoo visor...I think it is the perfect way to make your kid scared of getting water in their eyes and thus being scared to put their face in a pool. I have always dumped water right on top of my kids heads from day one (when bathing them...not just for fun) and they have quickly learned to close their eyes and mouths.

Anonymous said...

As a third grade teacher, I had the same initial response as the Phillips family about outlawing tag. We still let the kids play tag but all it would take is one child scraping a knee and a parent getting upset, and it would be gone!! SM