going to rant here

[grod]

Forget outdoor survival, brewing "no-pants", after a skin full, is what we should be teaching our young.

just sayin'

love

g

[Adam]

Skip the gas burning, noise making ATV and make the fuckers

So my 5yo son is a "fucker"? You are a class act.

Since when is riding a motor bike a good way to learn anything other than spending money?

Motorcycles are transportation. Teaching them proper riding skills at a younger age gives them more experience than most others taking it up at a 16yo or older. It's also recreational.

FFS, I know I enjoy the silence in the woods around me, or the sounds (another version of silence) that go with being there without a motor, a fuck of a lot more than hearing a 4 stroke.

When we are hunting, we only use the ATVs to haul the deer or bear out. Most of the ATV use is recreational riding or working on the farm.

[maxwell]

That's some beautiful land. Looks like a nice place to ride. I hope that you stay safe out there, unlike so many young people that I know who have tried ATVs and dirt bikes and have the scars to prove it.

[BierTodd]

Skip the gas burning, noise making ATV and make the fuckers

So my 5yo son is a "fucker"? You are a class act.<snip>

Yes, it's OK to take it personally, but I did not quote you, nor reference your 5 year old son. Shezus man, you didn't start this thread, I was addressing the OP. But hey, again, feel free to take it personally, anything I can do to take the pressure off is OK by me.

My point is/was that learning to use one's feet and hands until you can actually appreciate using a motor for the work (or for fun) isn't emphasized enough, and is as bad as emphasizing tanning beds at ANY age. I'm equally disturbed by both.

[Wutz]

I have too many opinions but...

First of all, I don't have kids. I don't want kids. I don't even like kids.

I wouldn't let my kid ride an ATV - not because I think it's absolutely not safe (double negative intended, it has a much different connotation than "because I think it is safe") but because I'm not inclined to ride an ATV, I've not been on one recently and I'm not capable at this point of making sure a child is doing everything as safely as possible.

Would you let your kid brew with you? Sure! If they knew not to touch the hot stuff and not to infect the cold stuff they could hang out with me all day.

Would I let my kid smoke a cigarette with me? No. I don't smoke and it's waaaay fuckin' bad for them. Similarly, don't take one to a tanning bed. Also, I don't let my kid drink out of lab thermometers or punch bears. Aside from punching bears, those things are setting them up for problems later.

My kid(s), if I ever find that I've acquired one, will listen to vinyl, brew beer, ride bmx, and probably make all the dumb-but-not-dramatically-life-altering decisions I made when I grew up. Was it a good idea to try to ride bmx at 20ºF? No. Did I get hurt? Yep. Did I do it again? Yep, it was fun.

Raise your kids to be smarter, more able, more prepared versions of yourself. If you can make sure they don't get seriously hurt on an ATV, have fun. If your kid gets seriously hurt, you'll have no one to blame but yourself. I couldn't live with it. Hell, my neighbors cat died in my yard, I had nothing to do with it, and I'm still bummed after a few months - I couldn't imagine giving a kid an easy way to hurt themselves and then taking on the responsibility of making sure they don't.

What do I know? Honestly, not a lot about raising kids...but this topic stirred a feelin' deep inside me from a place I'm unfamiliar with (no, not my loins...I'm very familiar with that region and I have lots of hands-on experience).