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Author Topic: children playground  (Read 5052 times)

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Offline mirror

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children playground
« on: April 27, 2008, 03:23:28 AM »
The most Russian people lives in appartments so every multiflats house has own children playground.
I am not sure in similar things in other countryes.Where do your children play?

Offline Ward_Cleaver

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Re: children playground
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2008, 07:52:53 AM »
I like to let my children play in heavy traffic and talk to crack whores.  When I take them on long road trips I like to spice it up by letting them take turns driving.  The five year old is just starting to get the hang of it.

I guess it really depends a lot upon your culture, living standards, and such.  With the exception of the highway driving, what I said above my not be so far from the truth for kids in the "bad part of town".  I've built a play structure in my backyard for my children and their friends with a slide, swings, rock climbing wall, and a cantilevered fort on top.  But for some reason new kids seem to be more drawn to the pond and waterfall.  I remember inviting a woman with small children to my home and watching her son play dangerously close to the pond from the corner of my eye.  She was pretty impressed at my reflexes to grab him mid-fall after one foot/leg had gone in.  I guess that you kind of learn to see things coming like that as a parent but I try to not interfere until I feel it is necessary.  Anyway, I've also got two of those electric powered four-wheelers that I picked up from the thrift store for about $10/each and repaired them.  The kids LOVE ridding those things around the back yard.  Sometimes we will take a trip to the park about a block away.  I will rig up a wagon behind one of the four wheelers to work as a trailer and load it up with our lunch, a Frisbee, baseball mitts, etc.

When I was a kid we had a trampoline in the back yard that attracted a lot of the neighborhood kids.  We would do flips off the house onto the trampoline followed by another flip up and over the neighbors fence.  The funny thing I remember about that was my parents getting mad at us for wearing out the shingles on the house but they never said a thing about us getting hurt.  Those were the good old days when people had the attitude of, "that'll learn um."  I seldom tell my kids not to do something because it is unsafe.  I simply ask, "Do you really think that is a good idea" and let them decide for themselves.  If they get hurt, well, maybe they'll think twice about doing it again.  And they'd better not come to me crying about it.

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to play "guns".  Basically we would divide up into two teams and run around the neighborhood shooting each other.  The fun thing about it was that there were no restrictions on where we would "play".  Anyones back yard or trees or building structures were fair game.  Fences were just obstacles and the old grouchy people in the neighborhood who would yell at us for running through their yard and climbing their trees just added to the fun.   The only problem with this game was that there were inevitable arguments regarding who shot who first and who missed.  This was quickly remedied when we discovered BB guns.  Unfortunately they were taken away when our parents caught us sniping some of the old people in the neighborhood.

Even though I lived in the middle of our city, I was fortunate enough to have horses at the edge of town.  In the summer we would ride our bicycles about a mile away to our horses and enjoy riding them around.  I would put a LOT of miles on that bicycle just exploring the town I grew up in and my dog always enjoyed coming along with us.  We would do things like build sling shots from the branched fork of a tree, old tire inner tubes, and a scrap patch of old leather.  My elementary school was only a few hundred feet away from my home so we would go there often to play baseball, kickball, basketball, and just play on the swings and such.

Well, that is just a bit about my experience with kids and being a kid here in the US.  I hope it give you a little bit of a feel for what things are like here from my perspective.

Offline mirror

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Re: children playground
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2008, 12:05:53 PM »
Ward_Cleaver,

so do you have 2 children?

Lovely report...When I was visiting my cousin in the UK I could see small playground in backyard her house also...not too big space to play really.

Our children ( mostly boys as it shown in a photo) play under all adults around control. So some parents don't bother to watch after them at all and busy with their own business. I can say more when children play next of house every parent is calm and in a piece about chidren's safety.Even if some children go away it is easy to find them by asking their friends or people.Our old people have a habbit to sit and to watch  and to discuss about everything what is happening around.   


Offline Ward_Cleaver

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Re: children playground
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2008, 01:19:19 PM »
so do you have 2 children?

Yes, two sweet, adorable little girls.

I can say more when children play next of house every parent is calm and in a piece about chidren's safety.

I grew up in a very safe and clean environment similar to what you see on "Leave it to Beaver" or "Father Knows Best".  Parents didn't have to concern themselves to much about the safety of their children.

Offline mirror

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Re: children playground
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2008, 02:13:18 PM »
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Ward_Cleaver
Yes, two sweet, adorable little girls.


I always wonder why children are not with their mother? But in your case it can be a different reason.Sorry if I hurt your feelings about your wife.


Offline Ward_Cleaver

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Re: children playground
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2008, 04:08:24 PM »
I always wonder why children are not with their mother? But in your case it can be a different reason.Sorry if I hurt your feelings about your wife.

Oh, they actually are living with their mom.  We are actually still arguing/discussing the details regarding time sharing.  She is a pretty good mom for the most part but I see what gaps in the parenting role need to be filled in addition to the typical father things.

Offline mirror

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Re: children playground
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2008, 07:10:41 PM »
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Ward_Cleaver
Oh, they actually are living with their mom.  We are actually still arguing/discussing the details regarding time sharing.  She is a pretty good mom for the most part but I see what gaps in the parenting role need to be filled in addition to the typical father things.

AA! Sorry then,it was an impresson that they live with you.
In Russia I don't know any one man who wants to raise and take care about his children.All men think children will limited their possibility to remarry and it is truth.So I see that foreign men with children have some difficulties to find RW for a marriage also. 

Offline Wild Orchid

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Re: children playground
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2008, 08:00:52 PM »
AA! Sorry then,it was an impresson that they live with you.
In Russia I don't know any one man who wants to raise and take care about his children.All men think children will limited their possibility to remarry and it is truth.So I see that foreign men with children have some difficulties to find RW for a marriage also. 

Normally men in Western society try to stay involved in the lives of their kids. Hardly anyone just walks away, they get involved in bitter custody cases and do everything they can to stay fathers to their kids. The same can't be said about men in Russia.

Offline Ward_Cleaver

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Re: children playground
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2008, 09:56:49 PM »
All men think children will limited their possibility to remarry and it is truth.

I have to disagree with you here.  My daughters have never been a limiting factor in finding a woman to marry.  In fact every woman that has ever met my children has fallen in love with them and my parenting skills, especially if they are already a mother.  But I have learned to keep my children from the women I date.  Their mother is not a real loving, nurturing type of person and the women I date are.  And with my daughters being so adorable they naturally build a bond with one another very quickly so it is hard on everyone when things don't work out in the relationship and I don't think that is really healthy for them.  Besides, when I am with my daughters I don't like to divide my time between them and anyone else.

Offline mirror

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Re: children playground
« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2008, 03:16:42 AM »
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Ward_Cleaver
I have to disagree with you here. 

What I said about Russian men is the truth and what I heard from western men also is that when RW knows about their children all RW disappears in mostly cases even without seeing children. Of course it is not a rule.Chris has 2 children also and he found a wife (with a child ) anyway.So we can ask him how it was EASY or DIFFICULT to find her.

Offline Chris

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Re: children playground
« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2008, 05:46:33 AM »
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Ward_Cleaver
I have to disagree with you here. 

What I said about Russian men is the truth and what I heard from western men also is that when RW knows about their children all RW disappears in mostly cases even without seeing children. Of course it is not a rule.Chris has 2 children also and he found a wife (with a child ) anyway.So we can ask him how it was EASY or DIFFICULT to find her.

As you are talking about me I may as well answer  ;)

I don't agree with that at all Mirror, finding a woman/wife with my own children was no problem at all, in fact every lady I have communicated with I have told upfront I had three children of my own living with me, although now only two live with me and one of those is moving out to go to University soon.

I also explained to most women I corresponded with how it all happened that the three of them were living with me and to be honest it turned out to be a positive for me as again most women if not all actually, saw that for a man to take on three children after his wife walks out takes some doing, again most of them commented that it would not happen in Russia/Ukraine etc but they could see past that and thought I was a good man for doing so.

It depends on the woman herself and the age group you are searching in of course also, but during my searching phase which lasted just over 2 years, it was never ever a problem, could be seen as a positive in most circumstances and of course the fact that I had children of my own living at home gave the women even more confidence in me as a caring type of man, especially if they had kids of their own.

I also stated very early on in my communications that I was not looking for any more children of my own, but would be happy to take on a women with her own children, so she knew upfront where I stood on the role of children in any possible future relationships, nothing was left to chance or to come later as a surprise, if you are honest from the start, you will either quickly make a lady decide to give you a chance or frighten her off, either way is best for you as a man with children IMHO.

One more thing, my wife and I discussed children at length very very early on in our relationship and one of her major concerns was meeting a man who would treat her only child (daughter) as his own and how she thought that would be a problem in finding a husband, at out wedding, one of her closest friends said to her "it is quite obvious Chris has not just married you, but Nata also"  she replied "I knew he would be right for both of us after a few weeks of us corresponding and after meeting him this just confirmed that opinion" so I guess whatever it was I showed in my early correspondence worked and by no means did mentioning my children living with me, frighten her off, in fact it actually strengthened her resolve to get to know me better.  :party0011:

I do treat her daughter now as my own, that is true, but without the deep love of her mother, yes I may find that a little hard, who knows???,  but I have no doubts in that respect whatsoever.

There are other things/stories about things that we discussed that she turned into a positive that completely blew me away, because I know for sure many WW would view them differently, but I will leave it there for now.  :)

Chris


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Offline Simoni

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Re: children playground
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2008, 06:36:57 AM »
The most Russian people lives in appartments so every multiflats house has own children playground.
I am not sure in similar things in other countryes.Where do your children play?
The waterfront of our city is lined with city parks.  Very beautiful, and with playground equipment for children.  For us, it is only a short walk.  Parts are also in other parts of the city for people who live there.  Children also play on playgrounds of the public elementary schools.
And I think it's going to be a long, long time...

Offline mirror

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Re: children playground
« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2008, 07:00:00 PM »
Chris,
thank you for answering. I agree that 2 people who have children can understand and accept each other much easier.

Offline mirror

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Re: children playground
« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2008, 07:02:56 PM »
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Simoni
The waterfront of our city is lined with city parks.  Very beautiful, and with playground equipment for children.  For us, it is only a short walk.  Parts are also in other parts of the city for people who live there.  Children also play on playgrounds of the public elementary schools.

Where do you live, Simoni?

Offline Wild Orchid

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Re: children playground
« Reply #14 on: April 28, 2008, 07:45:18 PM »
Nothing like that in my small town. We have one park with broken swings and other stuff that is hardly used by anyone. People prefer to buy their own and install it at the back yards

Offline Jared2151

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Re: children playground
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2008, 06:20:11 AM »
Sadly, I have seen playgrounds become a loitering spot for the local hoodlums at night.
What they can't outright destroy, they set on fire.  Ever seen a plastic sliding board melted ?  Sometimes they are caught, but mostly they go free.  All I can say is that it's a good thing I don't live near one of these places, or they'd find out about infrared cameras and night vision equipment in short order. Punks. >:(

Offline Simoni

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Re: children playground
« Reply #16 on: April 29, 2008, 07:24:31 AM »
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Simoni
The waterfront of our city is lined with city parks.  Very beautiful, and with playground equipment for children.  For us, it is only a short walk.  Parts are also in other parts of the city for people who live there.  Children also play on playgrounds of the public elementary schools.

Where do you live, Simoni?

I'm a Texan living and working in Tampa Bay, Florida USA now.  Both Marina and I feel like we are living in a foreign land.

But hey!  Mickey Mouse is just an hour and half away  ;)  LOL
And I think it's going to be a long, long time...

Offline mirror

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Re: children playground
« Reply #17 on: April 29, 2008, 08:55:27 PM »
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Simoni
I'm a Texan living and working in Tampa Bay, Florida USA now.  Both Marina and I feel like we are living in a foreign land.

But hey!  Mickey Mouse is just an hour and half away  ;)  LOL

Oh! Sure it is lovely place for children:warm climate,palms,ocean,bananas... ;D

Offline mendeleyev

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Re: children playground
« Reply #18 on: May 04, 2008, 06:31:14 PM »
My wife naturally adores children and she and my daughters get along very well.  Perhaps her love for my daughters also mirrors the love I feel for the wonderful young lady who is now my stepdaughter.


Offline Chris

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Re: children playground
« Reply #19 on: May 05, 2008, 02:27:01 AM »

Thats just fantastic Jim, its really nice t hear stories like that :)
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