RJM posted:Shoveit4Ks posted:Mine wanted a longboard when he was 15 or 16. At that point, we knew he was pretty good on the mound. I said no. It was a big deal. I stuck to my guns. He rode a friends anyway and had a few spills, nothing serious. He jumped off of cliffs up in the mountains into the swimming hole below. Who knows what else he did and what "risks" he took being a boy.
There's a place we used to jump off a cliff into the lake. It was forty, fifty feet. With eyes closed the fall seemed like forever. It was necessary to jump out at least three feet to clear rocks at the bottom. One time I got bored and dove. It wasn't a real good dive. I went over a little. I never made that mistake again.
I took a friend one time who wouldn't jump after me. He finally went the third time. He decided to jump because I went three times and didn't die. Years later the cliff is now marked off as an illegal place to dive for safety reasons (someone died).
When my son was three I let him jump off a ten foot platform with a preserver on while I waited in the water. One time he dove. He had no clue how to dive other than hands go first. "I got bored jumping." Like father, like son.
I sometimes get shivers thinking back on some of the stuff I did. We would hike Tuckerman's Ravine and ski down. There's a long list at the top of Mount Washington of people who died on the mountain including skiing Tuckermans.
Had to google Tuckermans, it looks like a fun place. In my early 20's my now wife and I were ski bums in Tahoe. Reminded me of summers hiking into and skiing the 4th of July Chutes. Fun times!
Such mixed feeling regarding bubble wrapping kids. I have always been a let kids be kids. Stuff happens but it all works out. Now with my son coming off back to back injuries, not baseball related, it makes me wonder if that is such a good idea. 6 weeks down and 8 weeks rehab has made for an unproductive baseball summer.
On the other hand, we have done a lot more fishing, camping, lake days on the boat, and a rare nonbaseball related out of town vacation.