It's great to be alive!

[Hoskins]

When I was a boy, we weren't afraid of getting run over by a truck when hiding in a leaf pile, but then, we didn't put our leaf piles in the road, either.

 

http://www.creativepro.com/blog/scanning-around-gene-danger-around-every-corner

 

Also I was driving fast boats when I was twelve, never used a helmet for anything but snowmobiling, left the house around 9 AM and got home around midnight most summer days, often riding our bikes 6 miles into town without telling anyone where we were going, and hitchiked when the bikes weren't around.

 

I don't know if my parents were total idiots or total rock stars (really they were just totally disinterested in what we were up to), but at least I didn't lose a limb in a terrible bicycling collision.

[Forty-Two]

I think this really shows the difference in prevention tactics for parenting as the generations go by. Nowadays parents are afraid to use scare tactics because society labels children as unable to handle any sort of grim reality. Sure it's probably better to say, "Wear a helmet so you don't get hurt," instead of saying, "Dear God you are going to kill yourself or at least be horribly maimed by the danger lurking around every corner if you aren't safe!" but negative diegetic learning isn't necessarily a bad learning tool.

 

And about the leaf thing - when I moved towns I was so confused as to why every side street had all their leaves raked out onto the road. It's because trucks came around and sucked up all the leaves instead of picking up leaf bags. So maybe piling your leaves on the road was/is a standard practice in some towns.

[jon-jon]

diegetic

 

This is a new one for me. Could I get a definition?

 

I'm thinking that its a boomer generation thing reacting to the less than over protectiveness of their parents. Every generation seems to re-invent "parenting".

[Forty-Two]

This is a new one for me. Could I get a definition?

 

I'm thinking that its a boomer generation thing reacting to the less than over protectiveness of their parents. Every generation seems to re-invent "parenting".

 

Okay, apparently "diegetic" isn't a word according to online dictionaries, but we used it a lot in one of my university classes when discussing children's literature as a form of the word diegesis, the definition of which I will cut and paste from Wikipedia because it's easy:

In fiction, diegesis is

 

1. the (fictional) world in which the situations and events narrated occur; and
2. telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting.^[1]

In diegesis the narrator tells the story. The narrator presents to the audience or the implied readers the actions, and perhaps thoughts, of the characters.

 

We considered negative diegetic learning to be those stories where the children were meant to be taught a lesson or given a warning, an example being a little girl plays with matches and she burns to death, so the children are meant to be scared into not playing with matches. A lot of older children's literature works this way - Little Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland for example.

 

 

Oh yes, every generation seems to want better for their kids by being better than their parents were to them. That just seems to be the way it goes

 

 

 

 

 

[Former Member]

I don't know what it is, but my mother was one who always gave a dire proclamation of impending doom about everything. I ignored back then and ended up with many instances of broken limbs, etc. and didn't care.

 

She still does it, and has reasonably convinced my 13yo son she's right, though he gets hurt or manages to hurt himself as much or more often than I did near the same age.

 

As a parent myself, I am quick to react and protect, but I know my child and he will obliviously walk into a low hanging branch for example. If anyone is going to fall down a flight of stairs at school, it will be him. At a certain age, we were in the E.R. every weekend, and that was watching him closely. Many times I prevented accidents that could have happened. Somethings he's done...boggles the imagination.

 

For outside influences...I am really curious about this kind of phenomena. I think media and news coverage greatly increases children's awareness of things which can happen to them beyond what a parent might or might not say, but also it's like...by the power of suggestion people DO more stuff to kids these days.

 

Towards other people and countries, he's developed his own balance which my parents say I've influenced (one can't help but influence your children) but they see it in a bad way.

 

While my son can't be coerced to walk to a store by himself where we currently live in the US, which is considered quite a nice city and neighbor, or even to the mailbox...he will go so in busy Berlin, take a bus across the city, whatever. He doesn't feel the same bombardment or attention. I've asked him, and he's traveled with me most of the last eight years in between countries of Europe and the US, what makes the difference for him. He said something like, "I think someone would help me there but not sure of that here." I don't know...

 

Person: "It's great to be alive!"

Red's mother: "Yes, because just last week this little boy got his head chopped off because...."

Red: "I bet he was glad, too."

[jon-jon]

Okay, apparently "diegetic" isn't a word according to online dictionaries, but we used it a lot in one of my university classes when discussing children's literature as a form of the word diegesis, the definition of which I will cut and paste from Wikipedia because it's easy:

In fiction, diegesis is

 

1. the (fictional) world in which the situations and events narrated occur; and
2. telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting.^[1]

In diegesis the narrator tells the story. The narrator presents to the audience or the implied readers the actions, and perhaps thoughts, of the characters.

 

We considered negative diegetic learning to be those stories where the children were meant to be taught a lesson or given a warning, an example being a little girl plays with matches and she burns to death, so the children are meant to be scared into not playing with matches. A lot of older children's literature works this way - Little Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland for example.

 

Ieeeyeee! Another one. I will just add this one to "paradigm" as a word that gives me brain freeze. Everytime I heard that word, my mind would (well, it still does) just shut down. I don't know why but I just can't get my mind around it. Diegesis isn't in my Webster's either. It's a fancy way of saying storytelling? I don't think I will be adding it to my vocabulary. Might be good for scrabble if nothing else.

[Forty-Two]

Ieeeyeee! Another one. I will just add this one to "paradigm" as a word that gives me brain freeze. Everytime I heard that word, my mind would (well, it still does) just shut down. I don't know why but I just can't get my mind around it. Diegesis isn't in my Webster's either. It's a fancy way of saying storytelling? I don't think I will be adding it to my vocabulary. Might be good for scrabble if nothing else.

 

Lol, I'm pretty sure in most cases you could say its synonymous with storytelling, if that helps thaw your brain freeze a little I decided to expand upon my Scrabble vocabulary once, saw how many two letter words exist that seem to mean nothing, reneged my idea, and closed my brain down for the day

[jon-jon]

Lol, I'm pretty sure in most cases you could say its synonymous with storytelling, if that helps thaw your brain freeze a little I decided to expand upon my Scrabble vocabulary once, saw how many two letter words exist that seem to mean nothing, reneged my idea, and closed my brain down for the day

 

Die, gesis! Take that! I think I'll name my next new kitten Gesis. AND when anyone asks, I'll tell them it's a Canadian thing! Hehehehe.

[Forty-Two]

Die, gesis! Take that! I think I'll name my next new kitten Gesis. AND when anyone asks, I'll tell them it's a Canadian thing! Hehehehe.

 

LOL! Awesome. I have a friend who wanted to name her dog Candy after Canada but we wouldn't let her because it sounded too much like a stripper name