how many have you done? how many would you let your kids do?

[Kali]

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/06/28/23-dangerous-things-let-kids/

I and my kids have probably done all of them, though their sledding was likely only cardboard on an inch of snow. I haven't been told any cliff jumping stories yet, but did it myself on the Salt River, not much of that kind of thing available close to home so as far as I know they haven't had a chance...

When you jump from a cliff 20 feet high, you’ll hit the water at 25 miles an hour. That’s enough force to do some serious bodily damage. But making such jumps, and even those which are higher, is certainly doable, even for small kids, as long as you take precautions and teach them proper technique.

Make sure the water is deep enough; for a jump of 20 feet, the water should be at least 8 feet deep. Then add 2 feet of water depth for every additional 10 feet of jump height. Ensure the landing spot is free from underwater obstacles like rocks. And teach your child to jump in a pencil dive: body straight, arms overhead, back slightly arched to avoid rotating forward. For little ones who aren’t strong swimmers, put them in a life jacket before they Geronimo! into the water.

[Arkansas Granny]

1. Like you, between me and my kids, we've done everything on that list.

I don't know if any of us have done all the things on the list, but every item has been done by one or more of us (and some of us still bear the scars).

[smirkymonkey]

2. I have done everything but shoot a gun and squashed a penny on a railroad track.

I don't have kids, but I wouldn't let them touch guns if I did.

We used to jump of these cliffs at a beautiful gorge near where I lived. If you missed the deep part of the pool it could get ugly. I have seen people come up bloody and battered and a few people even died. We were stupid. Kids have no concept of how much danger they can be in sometimes.

I don't think I would ever do it now.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. All of them, with the exception of jumping off a cliff into the water

(I didn't have access to a cliff), driving a car sitting on my dad's lap (he wasn't crazy), and riding my bike off a ramp (didn't have a ramp). But I did all the other the other things, plus a few more. When I was about 11 I sailed a Sunfish in a ship channel used by ore ships on the Great Lakes; I set off bottle rockets in the driveway, played unsupervised in a woods full of poison ivy, went swimming in the lake unsupervised (it was OK as long as we waited an hour after eating), and played with blobs of mercury. If I had kids I probably wouldn't let them jump off cliffs or play with mercury.

[Doc_Technical]

4. If all members of your peer group

flung themselves from a high precipice, would you do likewise?

[alphafemale]

7. I was generally first, actually. nt

[Kali]

8. if they went first and made it OK I would probably give it a try

[alphafemale]

5. I went half feral in the summer.

Great times.

[hay rick]

6. Did practically all of those things.

When I was a kid, we all roamed the neighborhood and nearby woods until dinnertime. We did most of those things without consulting our parents. Wouldn't mind being young again in a small town.

[Codeine]

9. I've done everything except exploring a construction site.

I was a completely unsupervised child while living in late-70s Wyoming.

[VOX]

10. Done all, if riding your bike into a swimming pool will substitute for "off a ramp"...

The pool deck had a bit of an upward angle at water's edge. With a good head of steam, I figured, that edge (and some velocity) should give me the lift I needed to clear the deck, and bail off and away from the bike into safe water. Got up a good head of steam, really met that decking cleanly and up! And off! And damnit, my left toes got hung up in the spokes of the rear wheel. Like baseball, bike-pool jumping was also an apparent undertaking of inches. The bike was fine, my toes hurt like hell, but no major damage. My grandmother (it was her house!) said if I didn't stop horsing around so much, I'd turn into a horse. Which actually sounded pretty fantastic.

Lesson learned? No, I was back doing it the very next day, mangled toes and all. Kids are awful.

[flotsam]

11. "put them in a life jacket before they Geronimo! into the water."

Asshole advice like this WILL cause injuries. Just think this through-whether headfirst with attendant possible shoulder injuries or feet first with the jacket striking them in the face and possibly being stripped off or strangling the child-there is simply no way the writer has either seen this done or tried it themselves. I suggest a 50' cliff and an experiment before you invite others to try this...I suggest you have EMTs standing by.

[Kali]

12. yeah that one was a little off

doubt toddlers who don't know how to swim would be up a 20 foot cliff anyway

[femmocrat]

13. All of them except for cliff-jumping and the penny on the rail.

Never lived near a cliff or a RR. Also, I doubt if I could climb a rope, but I'm sure the kids did it in gym class. I just remembered, I have swing off a rope into a swimming hole, but I don't recall that the kids ever did that.

I did find flattened pennies among my dad's mementos, so he must have done that or found some.