Is it possible kids do not recognize danger anymore?

Sometimes we find ourselves wondering how they live to grow up. I am glad your husband could stop.

It was a school field trip and not all parents go. I wanted to know where his assigned person was, though. I never have heard.

I do not know if there will be a law suit. The zoo requires a certain number of adults per number of kids, but in this case, it should have been fewer, I guess. The zoo is considering revising that standard.

I would think that the school would have so many kids per chaperone, though. Looking forward to reading about the law suit.

Kids always believe that they are invincible, but it just seems to be getting worse. I guess you are right, they cannot tell what it real.

We expect the teachers and school to do a lot more than we used to. I know some kids are hard to controlk, but when that is the case they need extra attention.

Autistic children learn differently, but they do learn, and in fact some of them are very intelligent. I think you are showing great wisdom in how you are raising him and how you are making choices about his exposure to stuff.

Actually, you made sense. My mom always said that whenever someone had a baby really young, they never really grew past that stage. I think young people have not had examples or grown up, sometimes because their parents are too busy, sometimes because the parents are not interested.

How terrific, then you will help her know the difference between pretend and real. I guess maybe the difference is that my children had their first trip to the zoo, and their first exposure to wild animals with me and my husband. So when they were old enough for school field trips they were old enough to follow the rules as well.

yup thats what I am working at .

I do not want this to sound like an indictment of television. In fact what really brought this to mind are all the beautiful, lifelike stuffed animals I have that were given to my Mom. A stuffed tiger cub looks just a lot like a real tiger cub, and kids who are not talked to may not pick up on the fact that the real one is a meat eater and is dangerous, because, as you say, they are not talked to. I once expressed the opinion to a teacher that I was responsible for my son's education, and she found that quite novel, but parents are the child's first teacher and they are constantly learning.

My son probably also had stuffed animals that looked real, in fact, now that I think about it, he did..It looked like a real German shepherd, but was small and he was only about a year or two old and he was frightened of the stuffed animal..I had to reassure him that it isn't anything to be afraid of, yet I have told him that dogs can be dangerous and to never to up to one he doesn't know..

You do talk to your son, and that is important. I think of times when I did not talk to my kids enough. We need to do that.

I know that some kids do not seem to be able to learn anything except in the hard ways. I do not advocate taking away the "stuffies" but I just think we need to make sure kids know that it is a toy, not real, and that the real thing is not tame.

And that is the point. This is just one idea that crossed my mind. I would not want animal stories removed from television and the movies and books. I would not want them to stop making these beautiful stuffed toys. I just want kids to know that real animals are not necessarily cuddly.

I guess occasionally, they need to have more realistic animal stories included so that they can see how they really are. I know the smaller kids aren't going to watch the real animal stories like on animal planet or national geographic specials, but if they put the information in cartoon form, it could inform just as well as the shows with real animals but maybe not as scary.

I think it does come down to talking to kids and exposing them to something besides pretend. I believe that learning compassion and responsibility is part of truly being educated.

@catdla1: While we worry about the nature of desensitizing kids with violent media, what about people that have not had that exposure? What I mean is, Ted Bundy never had TV or the internet, and violent music wasn't even in existence at the time. Yet, he committed some very gruesome acts. I don't neccesarily agree that it desensitizes them. I knew at a young age that just because I kill it in a game didn't mean I did in real life. I don't think it's the media's fault. They provide what the general audience wants. And if a train derails in real life, there will be a bigger group of people looking at the gruesome site than people that don't. When I was a teenager (I'm 25 now so it really wasn't too terribly long ago), The Columbine Shootings happened. And the people were in an uproar. And they blamed the media. And the media blamed music, and video games, and everything else. But you know, I listened to that music they said made kids violent, and I watched those movies, and I played those games. And I never once considered killing someone. And then it turns into an overall question: what causes someone to kill another? Because it's not just kids. It's adults, too. So a grown adult doesn't have a conscience? And they aren't at fault at all? I mean, people have to take responsibility for their actions, and if they have kids, they are responsible for them too. That includes raising them the best they can, not doing a mediocre (if that) job and turning the kid loose. We see violence all the time. Some people have it in their neighborhood. And what about True Crime television shows? Everyone wants to point the finger at fantasy, but what about exposing kids to the real people that actually commit murder? There's a reason we have a ratings system. If we start censoring all media that is considered violent, we wouldn't be able to show anything on TV, in the movies, or in music.

Well that is bad that you are missing your notifications. I am glad you found me. Have you checked your spam or junk mail mailbox?Twice I have had it happen that the MyLot mail all went to the junk mail box. I had to go put it on my safe list to fix it. I guess it still comes back to communicating with our children, over and over, how to be safe.

Good thinking Batman! Gonna check junk mail.

That was the one thing I did was get too close to a dog with my mom telling me not to. My parents were pretty lenient,and I was allowed to watch most everything. Even as a teen I wal only kept from going places if my mom thought I was burning my candle at both ends. I think almost everyone who has responded would agree with you that parents are obligated to talk to their kids if they want them to be safe.

I did the same. I got bit by a pit bull one day because it belonged to the neighbor and I petted it all the time while I was in my backyard. One day, I went for a walk and on the way back, stopped in the alley to pet the dog, which bit me. Apparently, it DOES matter what side of the fence you stand on. The neighborhood kids used to terrorize the dogs so it associated me with one of them. We all learn important lessons through personal mistake. But if our parents don't help lead us through them when we're young, we might find ourselves on the wrong side of the fence as adults as well ... and it might be worse than a pit bull the next time.

Hi, welcome to MyLot and to my discussion. About a month ago a little boy ran away from his chaperone on a school field trip, climbed an exterior barrier and got up against the fence where a snow leopard had her cub. He was injured, but has recovered. So then I began wondering about why he would think it was okay.

I just wrote a lengthy response to this, and it didn't even register. Apparently I wasn't logged in. How annoying! Anyway, I will attempt to remember what it is I wrote...: I think that children are especially influenced by what they see on television. Cartoons typically show all these fluffy, cute animals which can speak. This may distort what children consider good/bad, and ok/not okay. Parents have a responsibility; especially these days (with all the media circulating around us telling us stories), to explain to children all these things. I am not indicating that the parents are responsible for this particular incident (it's only a possibility). Also, I didn't quite understand why it is you wrote out the situation again. I'm assuming it was because I didn't contribute an idea/argument lol.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Kids are not exposed to real life any more so they don't have anything to compare fantasy to.

Something that many people have said here that I think makes a difference is that parents take the kids to the zoo and expose the kids. I know that very sadly, there are children who are never taken anywhere or exposed to anything to learn the difference between safe and dangerous.It is almost impossible for the schools to do everything we ask of them these days.

I just am speculating about why this child would try to get to a leopard's cage to be close to or pet the cub. When our cats had kittens Mom was very careful that we not disturb the litter, telling us that the mom might hurt us, but I have seen some absolutely beautiful stuffed toys that look so real, a child might just assume that the real one was harmless as well. Field trips are about learning, but the child in question got a really big lesson.

I was bought a stuffed Siamese cat for Christmas when I was a child. during Christmas dinner we heard a dreadful hissing and wailing which turned out to be our cat threatening it. It was obviously so realistic that even a real cat couldn't tell the difference!

I know that there were things a long time ago where kids saw something on Scooby Doo and killed themselves imitating it. So sad. I think that we need to find a way for them to understand.

Not until parents get with the program.

That is true. What has been said over and over in this discussion is that parents need to talk with their kids. Children need to know what is dangerous and they are not necessarily going to have an instinctive fear of something, especially if it looks cute or cuddly. Maybe even more than talking, parents need to listen, so they know when or if their kids are confused.

Oooh so scary and sad. I have heard of kids trying to jump off roofs trying to be super heroes.

Kids will still be kids. We should not let them run free...