Sociopaths & Lawn Darts & Passengers

woodchucker

woodchucker

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woodchucker
Last summer while visiting family, we came across a set of Lawn Darts.

One of my teen nieces *accidentally* released a lawn dart over her head and behind her. This is a kid who raises animals, plays soccer, and skis. Not clumsy supposedly.

On a subsequent throw, later on, also threw behind her. Came within 10 feet of hitting my mother.

Is this child a sociopath? Scared the crap out of me. I specifically told her she was not allowed to throw any more darts (not consulting my sister.... that **** seemed intentional). I'm comparing this to my own two daughters. One is athletic, the other not, but both of them were able to toss the lawn dart in the correct direction.

My sister is now coming to visit me, and said the kid wants a ride. Ughh... I told her that she needs to come along, and the kid needs to sit in the back seat. After witnessing the lawn dart ****, there is no way I want that kid within arm's length of the controls!

Any of you have sociopathic behavior in your family? It may stem from my own father, who I think also was a sociopath.
 
A relative got hit right on top of the head while over at our house, with a lawn dart. It was just like you hear, kids playing, no supervision, throwing them up for fun.

Off to the hospital we went, luckily no permanent injuries. This was back in the 70's. I don't remember ever seeing this lawn darts again.

If there was adult supervision, and throwing them at a shallow angle towards the 'rings' I see no problem with a round of lawn darts. Of course kids will be kids.

Keep an eye on air soft too, literally protect the eyes. That's another that has the potential to go badly.
 
No one in my family like that, of course we aren't new age types ether, start that lawn dart crap and you'll get set straight rather quickly when I was growing up.

Shame on the mother for not setting her straight after that, of course the reason the little chit probably does that is she knows mom won't do anything.
 
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Lawn Darts are officially illegal hazardous material by the CPSC. It's one of the few "toys" to ever get such a classification. I had a friend growing up who dropped one and it impaled his foot quite severely just from a few feet. The damage one of these could cause from ten feet in the air is staggering.
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I'm not understanding what happened with the lawn darts. How does one "release"a lawn dart behind her? Did she throw it backwards? And how old is this kid? Lots of kids (and adults) who aren't mentally ill do stupid things.
 
If she was throwing under-handed like a softball I can see how little kids could throw something backwards if that's the case.

You said she raises animals. Does she pull the wings off of them and torture them? That's a sociopath.
 
Lindberg said:
I'm not understanding what happened with the lawn darts. How does one "release"a lawn dart behind her? Did she throw it backwards? And how old is this kid? Lots of kids (and adults) who aren't mentally ill do stupid things.
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Some people can't throw a baseball where they are looking, it always goes off on a tangent 6-8 ft either side of the target.

Some people can't throw a softball underhand, they "release" too late and the ball goes straight up or behind them. They do not understand the concept of letting go of the ball.

Keep these people away from lawn darts.

Stick to bean bag toss.
 
txflyer said:
If she was throwing under-handed like a softball I can see how little kids could throw something backwards if that's the case.

You said she raises animals. Does she pull the wings off of them and torture them? That's a sociopath.
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That is a psychopath as well, and has great potential at being an award winning Serial Killer.
 
I think the Op is the one with the problem. Does every kid who can't throw something in a straight line need to be labelled a deviant? What about kids who fall over into another person when riding their bicycle, or who hook someone while trying to cast a lure? My brother and i have all sorts of scars from stuff like this when we were kids.
 
Kids will be kids.

I pushed my friends into creeks, off small cliffs, shot at them with BB guns. Oh wait so did they...
 
As long as you don't take any lawn darts in the airplane...
 
To the OP- You have your psychological disorders mixed up. A sociopath is not murderous. That is a Psychopath.

If your neice flung the lawn dart backwards at your mother with intent to hit her, then that is likely a psychopath. If she just flung it backwards because she just doesn't know how to properly throw things, that just an uneducated girl.

However, if she flung it backwards, nearly hit your mother and then said something like- "Whatever, that's here fault for sitting so close to us.", then that might well be a sociopath.
 
JHW said:
I think the Op is the one with the problem. Does every kid who can't throw something in a straight line need to be labelled a deviant? What about kids who fall over into another person when riding their bicycle, or who hook someone while trying to cast a lure? My brother and i have all sorts of scars from stuff like this when we were kids.
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I understand where you are coming from, and out of sight of adults me and my friends did some weird things. Once, I coordinated a bottle rocket attack at night while we were out camping. Yes, somebody could have been hurt. However, in the presence of adults, parents, and grandparents, that would NOT have happened. There is a significant difference.
 
Dav8or said:
To the OP- You have your psychological disorders mixed up. A sociopath is not murderous. That is a Psychopath.

If your neice flung the lawn dart backwards at your mother with intent to hit her, then that is likely a psychopath. If she just flung it backwards because she just doesn't know how to properly throw things, that just an uneducated girl.

However, if she flung it backwards, nearly hit your mother and then said something like- "Whatever, that's here fault for sitting so close to us.", then that might well be a sociopath.
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You may be right. And I'm not sure if I should be more scared or less scared (not for me, but her).

Let me ask you: after the second incident of throwing the lawn dart over her head backwards, and nearly hitting my mother, she did not appear to understand WHY I told her that she was not allowed to play anymore. Basically, it was more like, what am I doing wrong? Well, duh, you nearly killed your grandma didn't appear to move her much.

I need to brush my reading up on this stuff. My knowledge is limited to a general psych course in undergrad.
 
ARFlyer said:
Kids will be kids.

I pushed my friends into creeks, off small cliffs, shot at them with BB guns. Oh wait so did they...
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With your parents and grandparents watching and approving? It makes a difference, IMO.
 
James331 said:
No one in my family like that, of course we aren't new age types ether, start that lawn dart crap and you'll get set straight rather quickly when I was growing up.

Shame on the mother for not setting her straight after that, of course the reason the little chit probably does that is she knows mom won't do anything.
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It's complicated James. My sister doesn't have custody because she is in the National Guard, so this is basically visitation time. The father doesn't really have any limits for the kids. No lines that if crossed result in punishment. And when my sister tries to set her foot down, it makes the teen girls resent her for the effort. I don't mind being the bad guy.

The whole event just really sucked the life out of the Lawn Dart games, and we packed them up and put them away. I made my mom promise to give them to me someday. You can't buy them anywhere in the US legally.
 
I still keep clicking this thread thinking it's about Long EZ (or some other canard aircraft) pilots.
 
Teenagers' brains are not completely mature, so they do goofy/stupid things occasionally. A small group of eighth graders at my daughters' school decided it would be a good idea to try to drink some hand sanitizer at school, with predictable results. In some ways, they're still like large toddlers. It sounds like this girl isn't being particularly well parented, so that's probably a large portion of it.
 
It's impossible for me to really judge this kid, not being able to see the incident.

However I'd like to offer an alternate version of the long standing "teenage brains are not developed" theory.

You know all those stories you have? About the time you nearly got killed but managed to escape but only barely? Or all the extreme stuff you've done. We've all got these stories as adults, we've had our trials by fire. We may not think about these things all the time but they're part of our identity.

Teenagers don't have any stories yet... they're still finding their identity. For them, taking the risk may be worth establishing that identity. I remember when I was around 16 or 17 racing my friend down a rural 2-lane blacktop at speeds exceeding 100mph at times. Both the cars and road were in no way suited for that activity. I remember thinking during this event that if a tire blew out or a deer jumped out or something(both quite likely) I would probably die. I chose to continue anyway- having the experience and finding out if I had the courage/skill/whatever to do it was more important to me at that time than safety. As an adult doing such a thing seems absolutely suicidal.... but then it seemed very important.

I think that's something important to think about with teenagers. They can understand the physical world just as well as you but their risk tolerance and value judgement are the big differences.
 
woodchucker said:
It's complicated James. My sister doesn't have custody because she is in the National Guard, so this is basically visitation time. The father doesn't really have any limits for the kids. No lines that if crossed result in punishment. And when my sister tries to set her foot down, it makes the teen girls resent her for the effort. I don't mind being the bad guy.

The whole event just really sucked the life out of the Lawn Dart games, and we packed them up and put them away. I made my mom promise to give them to me someday. You can't buy them anywhere in the US legally.
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You should break them in half and throw them out, how would you have felt had the grandmother been hit? Wouldn't have been only the teens fault.
 
I'm wondering how horseshoes and lawn darts are different? Getting hit by either can cause serious injury. Maybe there are people out there looking to eliminate horse shoes as well as lawn darts.
 
cowman said:
It's impossible for me to really judge this kid, not being able to see the incident.

However I'd like to offer an alternate version of the long standing "teenage brains are not developed" theory.

You know all those stories you have? About the time you nearly got killed but managed to escape but only barely? Or all the extreme stuff you've done. We've all got these stories as adults, we've had our trials by fire. We may not think about these things all the time but they're part of our identity.

Teenagers don't have any stories yet... they're still finding their identity. For them, taking the risk may be worth establishing that identity. I remember when I was around 16 or 17 racing my friend down a rural 2-lane blacktop at speeds exceeding 100mph at times. Both the cars and road were in no way suited for that activity. I remember thinking during this event that if a tire blew out or a deer jumped out or something(both quite likely) I would probably die. I chose to continue anyway- having the experience and finding out if I had the courage/skill/whatever to do it was more important to me at that time than safety. As an adult doing such a thing seems absolutely suicidal.... but then it seemed very important.

I think that's something important to think about with teenagers. They can understand the physical world just as well as you but their risk tolerance and value judgement are the big differences.
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There is a bit of a difference between risking your own life and risking those of others.
 
Sociopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone then acts remorseful that they did it, just to "accidentally" do it again and watch everyone jump. Then act remorseful again. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it so that everyone turns on each other and a big fight ensues and the sociopath gets their entertainment.

Narcissist: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone and acts like it's an accident. Then does it again, to watch everyone jump. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it into them being the victim and the others are all at fault.

Psychopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone with the intention of hitting them or scaring them. Has no remorse and will do it again without warning.
 
Bob Noel said:
I'm wondering how horseshoes and lawn darts are different? Getting hit by either can cause serious injury. Maybe there are people out there looking to eliminate horse shoes as well as lawn darts.
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Horse shoes will bruise you, maybe break something. Lawn dart will penetrate your skull or any other part of your body with a 3 inch quarter inch spike, full length. It will ruin your day.
 
Pretty sure I could get the lawn dart at least close to the circle when I was younger than a teen. Isn't the point to get it in the circle so you can win? But the "don't care" attitude could just be a teen reaction to someone chastising her. Or not.
 
Everskyward said:
Pretty sure I could get the lawn dart at least close to the circle when I was younger than a teen. Isn't the point to get it in the circle so you can win? But the "don't care" attitude could just be a teen reaction to someone chastising her. Or not.
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I would have thrown the dart back at her, screw chastising, put a hole in her the first time and she'll take it more seriously.
 
PaulS said:
You should break them in half and throw them out, how would you have felt had the grandmother been hit? Wouldn't have been only the teens fault.
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Really?

I see no reason to jump on the OP for the way he handled the situation. He said the first toss might have been construed as accidental but after the second errant throw he said "game over".

I really don't see the problem. What difference would breaking them in half had made?

Or maybe he should have just pulled out his 9MM and took care of it right then and there? :rolleyes:

BTW...I'd love to find a set of Jarts. Loved that game when I was a kid.
 
timwinters said:
Really?
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Yes really, the things are dangerous, sooner or later someone will get hurt, that's on him for having them when he knows they are dangerous. And it's not only having them, but letting kids play with them. He probably hasn't thought about it, but the close call he had should be a wake up call.

The rest of your post is a rant devoid of reason or logic, a 9mm? Give me a break, quit projecting stupid crap onto me.
 
ahkahn said:
Sociopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone then acts remorseful that they did it, just to "accidentally" do it again and watch everyone jump. Then act remorseful again. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it so that everyone turns on each other and a big fight ensues and the sociopath gets their entertainment.

Narcissist: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone and acts like it's an accident. Then does it again, to watch everyone jump. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it into them being the victim and the others are all at fault.

Psychopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone with the intention of hitting them or scaring them. Has no remorse and will do it again without warning.
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Perfect description.

All of them a blight on society.
 
ahkahn said:
Sociopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone then acts remorseful that they did it, just to "accidentally" do it again and watch everyone jump. Then act remorseful again. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it so that everyone turns on each other and a big fight ensues and the sociopath gets their entertainment.



Narcissist: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone and acts like it's an accident. Then does it again, to watch everyone jump. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it into them being the victim and the others are all at fault.



Psychopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone with the intention of hitting them or scaring them. Has no remorse and will do it again without warning.
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Ahh I see you've met the Senator, and the two Congressmen! ;)
 
PaulS said:
Yes really, the things are dangerous, sooner or later someone will get hurt, that's on him for having them when he knows they are dangerous. And it's not only having them, but letting kids play with them. He probably hasn't thought about it, but the close call he had should be a wake up call.
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He said he was visiting family...I don't believe they were his.

And what part of "adult supervision" do you not understand? It sounds to me like he supervised and (re)acted properly.

He also said "teenager" so it's not like it was a 6year-old who didn't understand the significance of a jart hitting someone.

Lots of things kids do (gasp) unsupervised are far more dangerous than throwing Jarts but:

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step outa line, the man comes, and takes you away!
 
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ahkahn said:
Sociopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone then acts remorseful that they did it, just to "accidentally" do it again and watch everyone jump. Then act remorseful again. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it so that everyone turns on each other and a big fight ensues and the sociopath gets their entertainment.

Narcissist: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone and acts like it's an accident. Then does it again, to watch everyone jump. When someone gets upset, they'll twist it into them being the victim and the others are all at fault.

Psychopath: Throws the dart "accidentally" towards someone with the intention of hitting them or scaring them. Has no remorse and will do it again without warning.
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Sounds like a description of the different types of trolls here. :yes:
 
timwinters said:
He said he was visiting family...I don't believe they were his.

And what part of "adult supervision" do you not understand? It sounds to me like he supervised and (re)acted properly.

He also said "teenager" so it's not like it was a 6year-old who didn't understand the significance of a jart hitting someone.

Lots of things kids do (gasp) unsupervised are far more dangerous than throwing Jarts but:

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step outa line, the man comes, and takes you away!
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WTF is wrong with you?? I never said he acted improperly. I said he should throw the lawn darts away. You know, those things that have killed and maimed many people because they are not a safe toy. His story is a perfect example of why they are not safe.
 
PaulS said:
Troll.
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Not at all...I passed a kid (about 12 YO) yesterday on our county road. He was doing about 40 mph on his 4 wheeler. No helmet.

And Jarts are dangerous?

The OP was properly supervising the game, that's what responsible adults do. When something happened he took action. It wasn't his fault (like you make it out to be) that an injury may have occurred because the kid is demented.

If anyone is trolling here, it's you, trying to twist the situation into something it wasn't. I would have no problem with letting responsible teens play with Jarts...if I had a set...and after I explicitly told them the potential pitfalls of being stupid with them.

Oh, and BTW, getting hit in the head with a horseshoe might well be life altering too...
 
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