kids do stupid things.

just lately i have noticed my sons friends all have these horrible scabs, some are very nasty.
when i noticed my son with the very same scabs, i have become very concerned.
it turns out they are playing "the rubber challenge"
where 2 people use a rubber eraser on their skin, the 1st to give up is the loser.
when i finally got the truth out of my son, i told him to stop it immediately.
turns out one of his friends has more of these scabs.
turns out the new trend is "aerosol challenge"

so parents be warned.

do you see any other trends which are cause for concern.

Do you know what I'd do if my son was doing that? Set a challenge for him and his mates - that 100 pushup thing, or 100 chin-ups, or something.

Give them something pointless to occupy their time with, that might actually involve something of a challenge. Then if they act up with something else, challenge them to how they're doing with it. Least if they're all trying to outdo themselves in a slightly "macho" way, at least giving them something to try that actually may have some difficulty for a while, but might involve a bit of healthy competition between them?

thing is they spend a lot of time at our local skate park.
and spend time learning the latest tricks & moves.
but i like your thinking with setting challenges.
i'll give it some thought.

When I was a teenager we used to play "Raps", which was a point-scoring card game where the winning player in each round got to hit the losing player on the knuckles with the pack, once for each point he (always he of course) had scored. If the recipient pulled his hand away there was a penalty, usually ten raps or double the original number- the rules were fluid, much like your knuckles after a while.

Yup, played that as a kid. My knuckles were always a bit naturally scuffed - wasn't so much the pugilistic endeavours, more the dragging on the floor, so I had an automatic advantage.

We used to play peanuts, too - two people would interlock their fingers of both hands, then try and get the other to submit by hand wrestling them against their knuckle joints. I never met anybody at school who could beat me. Although a 350lb heavy grip has so far.