Run over the sign, that'll show them.

I like to use those signs as target practice!

I can't be the only person who reads the source "Good Men Project" and wants to punch everyone who posts there in the dick. FFS. Like Upworthy for whiny dudes. This particular post isn't sanctimonius crap or worse, Men's Rights horseshit, but that name just ensures they'll forever be a magnet for such.

I support the point he makes, but his tone is really contemptuous. What's next, do away with traffic signs and warning labels? Eliminate seatbelts 'cause no-one should be stupid enough to get into a car accident?

I know, Peckerwood. (Love the name!) Most of the pieces there make me want to find and throttle the author.

Tom Matlack, who started the site (and whom I met when he was on a panel with me at LA Times Fest of Books), means well, but he'd cheated on his wife and lost his marriage over it and then started the site, and the "I'm a man and a bad doggie" thing pervades the thing.

Playing in the street is mandatory for city life (assuming you are not middle-class and running the kids to soccer/piano/dance classes).

Watching the neighborhood kids play provides a pleasant end to a harsh business day. They grow up from toddlers to BIG teens playing BB. They start dating/buying loud cars/hanging out. Fun to watch. Hard to see some of go when accidents happen.

OTOH, watching people speed down the street while on their phones, lighting up/drinking up, etc. is very unpleasant. My neighborhood, my choice, whether the road is public or not.

Unlike the situation in ??? where the kids were jumping in front of traffic, neighborhood kids playing (at least here and in Va) look out for cars and each other.

Pity the fool that thinks they can ignore the life around them. The dads that are gangbangers living at home are pretty damn protective.

Tom is no longer there anymore, the feminists kicked his ass to the curb for his publication of an article questioning feminist canon.

Um, w/o reading the article, I'll take an opposing view. Sign in the middle of the street letting drivers know of kids, and slowing them down some, doesn't bother me.

I'll go so far as to say in my eyes, kids in a neighborhood playing on their lawns and occasionally in the street is a high value neighborhood.

I honestly can't say I've seen kids playing on their lawns or in the streets for years. They're all indoors.

So I don't mind it. Used to have a lot of fun playing in the streets.

Now all the SUVs and minivans lined up down the street, them I could do without.

I live literally above a playground and in ten years I've seen thousands of kids play here. The smallest do have parents here with them, the rest, the majority don't. In all that time I've only heard (screams) two kids who were there without parents and hurt themselves.

It's actually been pretty darn nice. Kids laughing and playing is good stuff. Except for the damn pogo sticks.

But not every neighborhood street has a close by play ground. But there are lawns and streets.

Scanning the article briefly, I think he's cramming two ideas together and then driving over them both in his humvee.

The whole world cannot be childproofed, and that’s actually a good thing.

The streets belong to GM Suburbans.

Take a look at his title, "Your Kid Is Not My Safety Problem" illustrated by a car in a street.

The juxtaposition suggests he is advocating the idea that drivers aren't responsible for the things their cars hits if those things don't have a VIN.

Well, he can take his Humvee and shove it up his ass. Yes, sorry Mr. Stafford, when you are behind the wheel of your SmartCar, or your Prius or your Yamaha or your Tesla, you are responsible for the people and dogs and things you drive your car into.

He cries that "The whole world cannot be childproofed" but leaves out "All the streets cannot be carproofed and made safe for cars".

And that's a good thing too.

It's a two-way street (see what I did there?). Yes, kids should absolutely be taught to watch for cars before going out it the street, but drivers absolutely have to pay attention to potential road hazards. If I see a kid on the side of the road, I assume he's going to run in front of me, even though 99% of the time he doesn't. But when the 1% happens (and it has) I'm ready for it.

I always slow down when I see kids or animals in or near the road. That said, there are several of those stupid neon people perched in the streets in my neighborhood when kids are playing. The only thing I've noticed them doing is giving kids a lack of manners and false sense of security. The kids playing by the signs don't bother to move out of the road or rarely even acknowledge cars needing to pass. If they look at the cars they just go back to playing like the world revolves around them and no one else matters. Now, the kids that play without these signs nearby promotly hustle out of the way and wait for the cars to pass before going back out into the street. I've also noticed that younger kids that play outside in the presence of adults make no effort to get out of the way either nor do the adults tell them to move, watch out for cars, etc. I said something to one of the adults about him asking his kid to come in out of the road while the girl kept riding her bike around after I'd waited for well over a minute. I was told "You need to watch out for my kid. She is playing and you're going to have to wait." WTF?!!! My toddlers (35 months, 20 months) know not to go in the road when cars are coming and to run for the grass if a car is coming and they're in the street. The little one isn't so good at it, instead just stopping and standing where he's at, but he's just learning and we also live on a one block long dead end street where there's not a lot of traffic.

I'm with Jerry on this. I think the writer drives down my street on regular basis, doing 40 or 45 in a 25 zone. It's a residential street, but it's straight and several blocks down it empties into a major street. Many drivers "floor it down the straightaway" despite kids playing, people jogging, people walking their dogs, cars backing out of driveways, etc., all the things going on down the street. So big wonder that some of the parents put out the "children at play" signs in hopes of slowing them down. HOA won't allow us a speed bump, apparently not until someone gets killed.

Once a few years ago when my kids were not yet grown and were playing basketball in the driveway, the ball got knocked out into the street, where it was hit and popped by one of these speeding morons. What if it had been a kid rushing home on her bike, or a dog escaping the leash, or some middle-schooler getting shoved by his rowdy friends, or somebody cutting across the street while jogging with headphones? I dashed outside when I heard it, just in time to see the driver squeal out as soon as he thought it wasn't a living thing under his wheels. Would've happily strangled him with his own entrails...

Yeah, kids should be taught to be careful, but they don't learn the first time you tell them. Nor do dogs, ever. And even the best-trained kids and dogs can be unpredictable. I'm not even a little sympathetic to over-protective parents who think that all hazards in life can be eliminated by sufficient nannying. But I'm a lot less sympathetic to people who feel entitled to create additional hazards because to slow down on a residential street would inconvenience them. Maybe consider that the operator of a 3500 lb, 200 hp vehicle is responsible for driving in a manner that will not unduly endanger others, sort of like they tell you on the first day of driver's ed.

Can we just shout this out loud?
"IF IT SAVES ONLY ONE CHILD..."

I have never once understood this public insanity. It is far easier for a pedestrian to avoid a car than for a car to avoid a pedestrian.

I agree that kids should be watching out for cars, and my kids are taught to get out of the street when cars are coming. But in our neighborhood we have a lot of speeders. People will go 40 mph down the main feeder street! Our street is a dead end and is much quieter but honestly the old lady who lives at the end and can barely see over the steering wheel and speeds down the road is a menace!!! I haven't bought any orange cones . . . yet. But I'm I'm considering it.

I hope all these parents with the bright orange signs, also have those helpful 'no firearms' stickers in their windows, so any potential burglar will be reassured that there is no risk at all to popping in randomly and hunting around for stuff to steal.