Kids and general stupid-ness.

Dom, the little boy staying with us, just tried to tackle me. While he gets an A for effort, he tried to tackle by holding his arms out wide and diving for my knee... for those of you playing at home, your arms are there to do the grabbing, so you don't smash your nose like poor Dom.

This sparkled a thought in my brain, I don't think I was that dumb as a child. Don't get my wrong, I was plenty dumb, hence why I've got brains now, I got my education first hand. Or, occasionally second, you see as children my friends and I did really, really... incredibly stupid things, and then we learned.

It was almost scientific, Timmy holds this end of the rope, Joe the other, and we see what happens when we ride a bicycle through the middle. Cousin John stacks the trash barrels like building blocks into a pyramid and we ride a bicycle through them. This all done while we watch on and take notes. Timmy and Joe are fine, though they were confused as to why they were hugging for a while, and we learned that bicycles do not go fast enough to break through before the top barrels come down.

What I'm trying to say is that we did stupid things and learned, no protective watchful environments, we took lumps and have limps and scars that come with great stories.

Take the recent upset I heard of, kids acting out video games and killing each other. I'll use two examples: One being the kids who shoot up their schools, the other being the two kids who killed each other thinking they could "rez" the other.

Now, see, in essence, basically, these kids are a bit stupid, then again so are the people who use these as examples for anti-video game laws.
The first kids likely got their idea to kill people based on the treatment given to them by the people they killed, I've heard the stories that "no one ever harmed them" but those were the same stories given to the teachers when we complained about people pushing us around in high-school. "It's all in good fun. Just ignore it. It's your fault too." Things we all heard. Well, while I fought back, I'm a trained fighter, and what is the favorite response from someone who isn't a trained fighter as to how they can beat one? Use a gun.
If you played video games, you'd know that in every shooting game there is a sword, which is more overpowered than any gun.

As for the other two, one shot the other and then tried to cast a rezzing spell, the parents blamed World of Warcraft. Hell, I blame the parents, -my- parents assured me that I cannot cast magic spells. Then again, I was also smart enough to realize that I, personally, had not ever cast a magic spell, therefore would have gone through testing minor ones before trying a big one. (see above topic about testing things). This wasn't a tragety, more like natural selection. Some of you may be going "But Tom, you amazing manbeast you, what would you say if this was your kid?" One: I'd ask my wife if she cheated on me with a moron. Two: It's an easy question to ask, albeit a lame one. Ask yourself this: would -your- kid be stupid enough to let someone shoot him and then attempt a spell they saw in a video game? No you say? Didn't think so.

As for my own self, I learned first hand that cartoons and videogames were not real at a young age, like most children I know. We played that the fort we built was on fire, and I said "you know what would be awesome? If we all got out, but you were left behind, and while we go 'oh he's dead!' you kick the door down, flatten me like on TV and we're all happy!"
After a near concussion, and a mouthful of dirt and grass later, I knew TV lied, so did all the other kids, my parents, and the guests my parents had for the next three months.

Moral of the story: kids are stupid, and the only cure is to get it out of your system before you're old enough to add alcohol.