Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3801-3805 (6-10 August 2018)

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Case:
I think I rather quickly disabused my parents of the notion that protecting their offspring from bodily harm was possible - or even advisable - so baby sis' reaped the benefits of that. They settled on hiding the knives and plugging the electrical sockets, which was probably wise.

Not that I was a wild child, or a disobedient one - I was a little ADHD dreamer kid (and a horrible klutz) and parental advice tended to have ... unforeseen consequences. Like the one time I found out that spring mattresses made excellent trampolines, and got it into my head that mine should be just as excellently suited to simulate a skydiver's jump out an airplane door - Mom is standing right in front of me, trying not to smirk, sterning "If you boink your head on the corner of the bed, you'll get a good thrashing, you know that, right?"

Guess what happened. That's how we learned that "the body will follow the eye". Forty years later, I still got a one-inch scar on my forehead (three stitches).

Mom never made good on the promised thrashing. I got a front-row view of how parents look when they try their best to suppress a panic attack while hustling their screaming, blood-covered offspring to the ER. It wouldn't be the last time. Aaaaaand it laid the foundation for my abiding hatred of hospitals. I decided to maybe pay a little more attention to parental advice, so I never tested whether putting my little mitts on the oven would really hurt. Ditto on on putting knitting needles into the electrical sockets.

Compounding the danger was my budding engineering/science aptitude, which was rapidly evolving due to a series of "well-intentioned" gifts (especially various Fischertechnik construction sets). I think at some point, Mom must have realized that warning her little scientist of the dangers of anything even remotely techy could be unwise, especially when he got 'that look' on his face.

We lived next door to Mom's sister, and the younger of my two cousins was a prodigy with anything mechanical (He's turned out a car mechanic, me a physicist). From age ten onwards, young Case started advising the grown-ups, e.g. on the proper way to start NYE-rocketry. The resulting mockery soon subsided when Uncle Yogi discovered that the little loudmouth was actually right, and ignoring him could lead to burned mitts (who'd get the idea that starting NYE-rocketry out of their hands was a good idea? My uncle, that's who. Grownups ...). My cousin took apart-, and re-assembled his first bicycle before we enrolled in elementary school (today, he scratches that itch by buying esoteric wreckage and selling it on ebay as soon as it is in perfect condition).

Warning us lot of dangers could be ... dangerous. And our two sets of parents were far too busy keeping up with the disasters resulting from ideas they wouldn't have dreamed warning us about, so they soon settled on a combination of loving mockery in less serious cases ("Rotting flesh. Good it's gone" - an inquisitive, excellently schooled child tends to take parental fears as inspiration for experimentation. Parental mockery, on the other hand ...), impromptu emergency-room skills in more serious ones (Uncle Yogi once peeled a cupload of gravel out of my knees & elbows. Turns out that pitiful wailing didn't impress Uncle Yogi to the same degree it impressed Mom - that is to say: At all - so I was forced to learn to drive more carefully), and exploiting our unsettling skillset as soon as we hit puberty and became actually useful.

Case:

--- Quote from: Annemoon on 09 Aug 2018, 10:39 ---I'm actually guessing a lot of these statements have a huge cultural influence in-bedded in them.
I'm quite surprised by the extend of some of the reactions here. Suing someone for this?
In my European country (the Netherlands) that would be unheard of.
There is a large believe in "don't be stupid". And this level of supervision is in general seen as adequate.
Moreover, similar treatments are standard in our education system.
Although i did a mostly academic oriented education, we had quite some basic wood/acrylic work in school; handling of hammers, basic sawing use etc was handled at 10-11. We had some basic training in using machine saws and drills at 14-15 with similar instruction level STANDARD.
--- End quote ---

It's similar in Germany, though I think that the self-reliance/DIY-attitude is more pronounced in the Netherlands and Belgium. We did e.g. use basic tools like saws in practical classes in elementary school, also knitting etc. (no powertools, though - but Gramps & Uncle had plenty, and they were absolutely verboten until we were old enough to hold them up for more than 5 seconds. That was before rechargeable batteries became widespread, so powertools tended to be heavy), and all four classes of each year went through a thorough "road-safety/bicycle use in traffic" course together (until age 8, German kids are permitted to ride on the sidewalk. Parents are invited to participate in the course as observers, and grade children's performance. Being initiated into one part of the adult world has a bit of an coming-of-age aspect).

I didn't need a powertool to lose a fingernail - prying a stone lose from under another works just fine in that regard - and yes, it hurts plenty, and regrowing it isn't fun, either. I think it's best to help children acquire a 'feel' for the forces involved in tools as early as possible.

Concerning liability: What about liability in the opposite case? One thing that impressed me as a kid were the ubiquitous signs on construction sites "Betreten verboten - Eltern haften für ihre Kinder". "No Trespassing - Parents are liable for the actions of their children". So from an early age on, I was aware of the fact that my parents might be legally liable for dumb shit I did (and of course we trespassed as soon as we hit puberty ...)

In that context, I'm rather ... astonished about this NYT-article: "Can Parents Be Charged for Failing to Keep Their Guns Locked Up?". Like ... how is this even a question?

(click to show/hide)Edit: Virtually the same happened in Germany a few years back: The Winnenden School shooting. Father of 17yo Tim Kretschmer didn't keep his Beretta in the safe, son nabbed it, killed nine students, three teachers, two adults outside the school and himself. The father was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 15 cases, bodily harm caused by negligence and the negligent abandonment of a weapon. Do I have empathy for him? Sure. Do I agree he should be punished? Absolutely.

hedgie:
you waited until you hit puberty to trespass?  German kids really *are* rule-abiding.

Dust:
A doctor's still probably a good idea - this seems like something you'd want a tetanus booster for.

Yhelta:
Was I the only one who read Sam's dad in the third panel in Hank Hill's voice? 

I tell you hwat!

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