No Fun Allowed
I used to be
a member of a small pool club. There was
a pool, a bbq area, two tennis courts and rules. There were lots of rules.
No running inside the fenced pool
sitting area.
No food inside the fenced pool
sitting area.
No fins or float devices in the pool.
No ball playing in the pool.
No dangerous dives off the board.
No playful tossing children in the pool.
Bathing caps required for long hair.
No alcohol
No smoking
Proper attire must be worn at all
times.
No roller skating or skateboarding in
the tennis courts.
Many of the rules
were subject to interpretation.
I used to
say there should be one sign as you entered the club:
NOB VALLY SWIM CLUB…NO FUN ALLOWED!
I recently
read about a school that was ending their traditional Halloween parade. Instead there will be a black and orange day
where kids can wear black and orange but no costumes. I guess they are afraid some costumes might be offensive.
Personally,
I never understood Halloween or costumes in school. There were no costumes in school in my day. We put on our costumes and trick or treated
after school. However, if you have a
tradition, give me a good reason to cancel it and don’t replace it with some
stupid “Black and Orange day.”
They
cancelled this tradition in my son’s school years ago. The kids were very disappointed. I believe the reason was security. With the kids in costumes and parents also wearing
costumes they feared nare-do-wells would sneak in and do bad things.
Stupid? I think so.
You can name
any function, game, tradition, or activity, and I can give you a reason why it is
dangerous or offensive. I think it is time
to make it official, no more complicated rules, no more arguments or discussion,
just put a big sign for all who enter this country to see:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA…NO FUN
ALLOWED!
Nailed it. This society is becoming so easily offended and kids are being raised to have fear of... well, you name it. Fun is always dangerous; it's just a matter of degree.
ReplyDeleteTimes sure have changed and I'm not sure for the better that they have changed. Everyone needs a bit of fun and break of routine every once in a while.
ReplyDeletebetty
Do they still allow costumes for Book Week or Easter Parades? That's something at least. But I agree with you, if Halloween Parades are to be banned, let that be the end of it. Don't make halfway concessions and have Black and Orange day.
ReplyDeleteSee I think there's a different reason; the super Christian conservatives killed it. They of the 'let's just call it a harvest festival instead' ilk. bah humbug. (and I'm not an atheist, but give me a break.)
ReplyDeleteDon't take away my Great Neighborhood Candy Exchange! It really is harmless fun to have little ones dress up and have the moms trade candy with each other through the children.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Silver Willow, except that the schools also changed Christmas parties and Easter parties to Winter and Sprng themes instead. I still can't get over that when my daughter was in college for early education degree, they taught that you had to celebrate Chanukah, Ramadan, etc., but NOT Christmas or Easter.
ReplyDeleteI remember when my two oldest were in school and they did away with the Halloween parties and the parade thru school. The kids could come dressed up but only as a historical figure - first approved my the school. Dumb.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we ever dressed in Halloween costumes up at any school I went to.
ReplyDeleteStill, I just KNOW that there was some nefarious reason for ending the costumes. My aunt posts to facebook every year about how evil Halloween is and how it's about satanism and how parents should protect their children from it. She wasn't like this back when she was raising her daughter, but somebody out there is bound to be.
The school district where I taught outlawed all holiday celebrations -- "we can't talk about God in school, but we can worship the devil on Halloween," Christmas is not inclusive and therefore offensive, Easter the same, there is no educational value to celebrations and they are just a distraction to the business of learning. Not even Thanksgiving, which I never thought excluded anyone who didn't actually want to be excluded. Presidents' Day borders on political territory, definitely not allowed. We are so all or nothing about everything. It is not fun.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, the number of education-stunting things that go on at schools these days is insane. As a society we moan and groan and complain while throwing money at the educational system (little of which makes it to the educators) while at the same time having this celebration day and that celebration day and this awareness day and that awareness day that everyone is encouraged to 'get on board' with, all of which take away from the faux-goal of improving education. And now we have people advocating for MORE of these things fighting people advocating for LESS and both of those groups are fighting another group trying to redefine everything to be something else. By the time our youngest daughter graduated there were weekly events to go with one or more annual events each month.
ReplyDeleteCut it out folks, get back to education! Just try saying that to the board of education. I did, a few times. Made for good clean fun, instead of fighting each other all of those factions banded together for a holy war against the no-fun-guy!! It was awesome. You should have seen the fireworks a couple years later when budget cuts forced them to curtail the madness. ;-)
I'm glad I grew up and lived the majority of my life in the days before we became a "No Fun Allowed" society.
ReplyDeleteLike Lowandslow, we most often lived in the country and fun was allowed. We lived on a private lake with no rules out side of not flipping brodies (spinning circles in the gravel in a car) and messing up the club house parking lot. Yep I was guilt of breaking the only rule---otherwise I was an angel:)
ReplyDeleteOMG! Finally I meat someone who remembers calling those sliding spin outs or skidding bicycle stops "Brodies." I thought I was nuts, now I feel better. DO you know where the term comes from? Someone named Brodie? I have no clue, but we always called those stops "doing a brodie."
DeleteNever heard of Brodies! We used to call it "cuttin' doughnuts." Not that I ever did it, of course.
DeleteI can understand the need to keep children safe, but it does seem we've become too thin-skinned as a society.
ReplyDeleteThey have done away with the costumes in the grandies schools as well. Sad.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the use of living if you can't have fun?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that my children are out of school and have been for many years. I wouldn't have had time to dress them back then the way they have things going on in school here now. Drees up day, bad hair day, Disney day, pajama day and many more that they let the kids do. I don’t care for Halloween I could dress up like a clown and go trick or treating this year, oh I forgot I'm not a kid anymore.
ReplyDeleteWeird club , it must be owned by some weird man who may never had fun in life and so did not allow others to take Free Breath in his club!
ReplyDeleteHer is tradition that parents receive special note on diaries of their kids when any special event is celebrated throughout the country ,kids have to buy new dress and related fancy stuff to participate in it .
but this is only in private schools which are in abundance here in our part of land .In government schools events are celebrated by students but in school's usual uniform