Yes I ask those questions. Because my child's safety in #1. So when I ask is there a gun in your home. The answer I'm looking for is (if yes) is yes there are guns in my home we keep them locked up in a safe away from the children. The kids will not be playing in that room...etc etc etc. We own a gun in our home and I would expect a parent to inquire about what hazards may be in a home. Just because I can properly teach my own child doesn't mean that other parent has taught theirs. As for motorized vehicles like ATVs and dirt bikes yes I don't and will not allow my child to ride one till they are properly trained and able to properly follow all safety rules. Like I stated before I cannot ensure that a parent has properly taught their child what to do in a situation reguarding a gun or safety on a motorized vehicle. I know that sounds anal but I take the safety of my child seriously. I also model to her how I want her to behave. So if that means wearing a helmet, not driving a motorized vehicle stupidly, wearing my seat belt, etc. etc. then that is what I will do.
That is very true. And I also know, boys being boys, that guns can be a very big temptation. I can think of one time when I wasn't sure Carl had the guns locked up (he needed to clean them), and Phillip's little friend came over. They were about five. I told Phillip they weren't permitted in the basement AT ALL, because I didn't want to take the chance that the boys "might" wander into that room and Phillip say, "LOOK! Wanna see something neat my dad has....?" I doubt he'd do that, but I'd rather be safe! So the basement was off-limits, and I was around to make SURE it was off limits!
Well, I haven't been keeping up with this thread even though I started it...lol. Suffice it to say I am against gvt. regulating most things especially parenting. Other than that we need to just be smart and have common sense as parents when it comes to safety. Words fail me right now but that's basically it...I am very anti-gvt and anti-state. lol. I would like to storm the White House or set sail for a New America if I had the chance. LOL.
I have no issue with the 12 year old going to the mall with her friends, but the 7 year old; and a definite heck no to the 3 year old & 7 year old being left with the 12 year old at the mall. Yes, if at home but not out in a public place like the mall where the pressures are just too high if something were to happen to the younger 2. I agree on the "labeling" thing as well. When I read the title I was thinking to myself, "what are we chickens or something?" I was allowed to go around to just about anywhere I wanted when I was young but there were rules as to just how far away from the house I could go, which increased when my age did. I feel a lot safer living on a military base so we do let our eldest be a "free range child" but the base is still not 100% safe so there are some boundaries even for her.
Wow if someone asked me if there was a gun in my home I wouldn't even know where to begin. I think we have about 15 guns in our house. Guns and hunting is my husband's passion. My dd13 hunts deer with him and goes to the gun range. We do not own an ATV but if we did my kids would only be allowed to ride out on our property. My hubby's best friends dd was in a terrible accident a couple years ago on father's day when she crashed her friend's ATV into a car. She was taken by lifeflight and thank God she survived. My dd13 was at a friends down the street one day and she called to ask if she could ride the 4 wheeler. All the other kids were cruising up and down the road with no parents and no helmets. I said NO WAY! Are you nuts?! Every labor day weekend we host a huge dove hunt on our property and there are usually a few 4 wheelers and I do let my dd13 ride in the pasture with her friends when the men aren't hunting.
Yes but the proper answer would be "yes we have several but we keep them locked up and out of the reach of all the children" I'm not asking for an inventory just a reassurance that the other parent is doing things properly and my child will be safe there.
Sorry I guess my response here wasn't "proper". I seriously have never had anyone ask me that question but after the initial shock I would probably answer in a similar manner. Maybe I've never been asked that because of who we associate with. Most if not all of our friends or my children's friend's fathers hunt and most of them hunt or have hunted at one time or another with my husband. Pretty much the parent of any child that spends the night here already knows about our gun collection. While most people it seems keep all their guns locked up without ammo we have one 45 we keep loaded at all times for protection should we need it. All the other guns are always cleaned after use and locked away unloaded. The gun that is loaded is kept in my room in a secret location that is easily accessible to dh and I but not to kids. And my room is totally off limits and my kids know this. They do not go in my room unless invited.
See I most likely not let my child stay in a house with a loaded gun that was not locked up. I know it is for protection but still anything can happen. At that point I would let you know that I'm not comfortable leaving my child alone in the home with a loaded weapon that is not properly locked up. If the kids were friends I would suggest meeting at a park or some other neutral place. Just like I would expect any parent to do the same. I remember what all I could find in my parents room if given a second unattended. I would however let my child stay if you offered to lock up your loaded unlocked gun. JMO. Gun safety is big in my house and we don't allow guns to be unlocked where our child plays.
I would think that any sensible parent wouldn't be offended by you saying that. Your primary concern is for the welfare of your child, as it should be. If you were to say something like that to me, fine. Or perhaps, depending on the situation, I would suggest that I could lock up that one gun while your child was at my home. Either way, your motives are highly commendible.
Thank you. Luckily because our daughter is so young I've only had to ask that question once and they didn't have a gun. As soon as my daughter is old enough to take a gun safety class I plan on putting her in one. I know they've been offering a "gun day camp" at one of the ranges for kids ages I think 6-15. I think it is a wonderful idea. They teach them about safety, how to properly care for a gun, dangers of a gun, shooting, etc. My mom thinks I'm overly cautious but I dont know I think that being on top of things is the best thing I can do for her.
Overly cautious is not always a "bad" thing! Sometimes we need to be, especially in this day when the majority of the people are too quick to just allow anything. Whether your mother, me, or anyone else thinks this is really irrelevent; you just do what YOU feel is right for your little girl!
Oh no I need to clarify I wouldn't be offended at all! Just a bit shocked because like I said anyone who knows us knows that we have guns and the kids who stay here pretty much all have guns in their homes. I would not be offended though. Just to clear that up.
OK, so here's what happened today: Rachael is going to AWANAS camp for the first time next week. Camp goes from Saturday to Saturday, and she is to arrive around between 4-6 Saturday afternoon. Our church has Saturday services at 6:00, and it's hard for us to get away as I teach Sunday School, and Carl does the Power Point, which means he really needs to be there by 4:30. We're small, and it's hard to get someone to take his place. His #1 replacement happens to be preaching that Saturday! And it's a good 2-hour drive to/from the camp. So it turns out that the kids who are on the Worship Team will be coming up on Friday night. She has two friends who will be doing this, one who lives (relatively) close, and one who lives about an hour away from us. Well, my friend Tammy (mom of the farther away girl) called today, and mentioned that according to HER daughter, the OTHER (closer) girl was planning on bringing Rachael up with her on Friday night, and they would be riding up with a teenage friend of the one girl. So all my non-free-range instincts kicked in. I told Tammy that I wasn't too comfortable with my daughter going up with a group of teens driving, especially since I didn't know the driver at all. And we're not talking a ten minute trip to the mall, but a two-hour trip across the state!!! Tammy laughed, since this is her fourth kid and that has made her "loosen up" a bit (my words, not hers! Tammy was very nice and understanding!), but it's my first, lol! But then, she called me right back. I guess she told her daughter, got the rolled-eyes, and "MOM!!! His PARENTS are going to drive them up, NOT HIM!!!" So that's better for me! Sigh.....
I agree too - especially if the driver is a boy. As the parent of four boys who are teenagers and up, we have reasonably strict rules about who can drive them and who cannot. I'm sure some people believe we're being unduly cautious; however - Car Crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States. Accidents while driving cause 36% of all deaths in this age group. - The fatality risk of drivers aged 16-17 years is 3.6 times higher when they are driving with passengers than when they are driving alone, and the relative risk of a fatal crash increases as the number of passengers increases. The statistics are sobering, and I'm sure most of us know of teenagers who were killed while driving.
My boys are ages 18 and 20 and they still check in just to let us know they are okay. Times have changed and there are creepy people everywhere. I check the pedophile list and we have a few living in our town. :evil: There are two unsolved murders in our county. One lady with whom I knew was found cut up and burning in a barrell and the gentlemen went after some people who broke into his house and they have not found him. Times have changed and you always have to ge on the lookout.
I realize I'm a few pages late, but I just got back to this............... My family wearing helmets or not has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE GOVERNMENT!!! It's about what dh and I feel they need to do for safety reasons! With my own son's little accident (little only because he was wearing a helmet), and so many others I've heard about and seen, there is NO WAY I would go without a helmet or allow my children to when riding bikes or scooters!!! So many people say "We're just going around the block", and 50 yards down the road they're in an accident! It happens often (it happened right in front of our house--a neighbor taking a motorcycle for a quick spin around the block, wearing only a pair of shorts and a pair of sandals. No helmet, no protective gear. He went half-way down one street of the block [going too fast] and ran into a car. Since it happened near us, we ran out with pillow and blanket right away. I won't tell you what his body looked like, but it wasn't pretty! I'll just say that he ended up losing one of his legs) and I just don't want to take the risk! Yes, it'd be more convenient to nurse while the car is going, I found that a major pain to have to stop to nurse my children! But, I have an aunt and uncle who were in a car accident while she was nursing her baby. She and the baby got wedged in, and the baby suffocated. I felt then (and still do) that the life of children is too important to risk, even for a few minutes! About what we used to do: Yep, we all rode bikes around with no helmets, and didn't have seat belts in the cars and all lived to tell about it. But there are thousands and thousands of people who DIDN'T live to tell about it, or were terribly injured! My mom and dad worked in a hospital in CA and saw so many come in from accidents who had not been wearing any safety gear! I believe helmets are a law for motorcycles here, but be that as it may, my children will wer helmets if they get on a motorcycle. Living in a medical community for a few years opened my eyes to doing whatever was possible to prevent those things from happening! I don't ever want to regret my decisions by saying, "I wish I would've had my child(ren) wear a helmet/seatbelt!" in the event of an accident! Noone PLANS to get in an accident, they just happen sometimes, so dh and I feel it's better to be safe than sorry!!!
the furthest away my kids really go inside the mall: the food court bathroom while I'm in the food cort (they are at a dead end hallway).......
So Columbus is now enacting a bike helmet law for all minors, starting Tuesday. Problems with this are: 1) It is basically unenforcable in the inner city 2) The Fire Stations will be giving away 3000 helmets free. At a conservative cost of $20 each, that's $60,000 the city is putting out. Yet they are threatening to cut fire/police officers starting in August if an emergency income tax isn't passed, and to shut down the Dept. of Rec TOTALLY. So where the heck do they find money for helmets? 3) If they DO cut police, they won't have the man-power to enforce this law. (If they DON'T cut, they STILL don't have the man-power!) 4) My husband pointed out that a 17yo would legally be able to ride a MOTORCYCLE without a helmet, but not a bicycle! Again, I'm NOT saying that helmets are bad things. Just that a helmet LAW is. It's NOT the government's business to tell people how to raise their kids!!!
