[fabsroman]

Good Lord, we used to play smear the queer in my parents' front yard with a cement walkway in it, a cement sidewalk, brick flower beds running the length of the house, trees in the yard, and tree roots sticking up through the ground. Yeah, people got hurt once in a while, but I wouldn't trade the memories for not getting hurt every once in a while. Heck, I remember riding my bike in the street in front of the house, getting my front wheel cut off by my brother, and pretty much doing a summersault (sp.) into the back of my dad's dump truck. I remember riding on the back of a big wheel that my brother was driving down a huge hill, him hitting the brake, which caused the big wheel to fish tail, me flying off into the street and getting one heck of a cut on my knee, and my mom beating me when I went home with the cut.

My mom is the kind of mom that would want dodge ball and everything else outlawed. I cannot tell you how many times my mom wanted to divorce my dad because he was supporting my cycling, which resulted in some serious crashes and a hospital visit, yet I loved the sport and still do. I wouldn't change anything.

If the child is scared of the contact, let him stay home or not play. If he gets a black eye, bluddy lip, dislocated shoulder, etc., that is part of life. Let it heal and get on with it.

As far as the lawsuit issue is concerned, I think that is pathetic. Even if an activity is supervised, accidents happen so quickly that there might be nothing the "recess monitor" could have done to prevent it.

This just makes me sick. Too many laws and rules in our society, and probably because there are way too many attorneys and society is getting way too complicated.