What has happened to commonsense and personal responsibility?

And how many dogs can read whilst their owners gaze at the butterflies and birds

Life is very dangerous. 100% of people who are alive now will die at some time in their lives!

The natural world was not designed by a health and safety expert, and it doesn't come with a user manual with a chapter on "Troubleshooting". If you venture outside an air-conditioned, thermostatically controlled environment where poisonous creatures and unguarded edges are banned you have to first either research online every hazard you are likely to encounter or use that lump of grey matter inside your skull to think about what will happen if you prod an adder or let your dog run pell-mell over a cliff edge.

To make absolutely sure that no-one could say "I didn't know", how far apart would you have to put notices warning that cliffs and tides are dangerous? Every fifty yards? (people might approach the coast at right angles and miss it otherwise.) Britains coastline, including islands, is said to be anything between 10,000 and 19,000 miles long. At about 350 per mile that would be at least 3,500,000.

At least it would make work for sign-writers and post-erectors.

Katek, I don't know what's happened to common sense and personal responsibility. It's so obvious that a dog might chase a bird, a rabbit or just get over excited and leap off a cliff edge that it should be on a lead.
Everything seems to have to be the responsibility of "them" or "they" who should put signs up and prevent any of us getting into difficulty anywhere.

As for x breeds. That's a whole other thread. I won't start it because I own two them, volunteer with a rescue charity that re-homes the many that turn out to be, well, dogs, rather than a ball of fluff that looks nice, doesn't moult, is always easy to train and good with children, plus can be left for hours on its own without eating the skirting boards.

Some years ago two boys dug a deep hole on a sandy beach while their father watched. They then let their 3 year old sister climb in. The sides collapsed and the little girl suffocated.

The complacent watching father - until the collapse - was a teacher.

You cannot legislate for stupidity. although nowadays we keep trying. All it does is make people more stupid.

No one seems to have any common sense nowadays!

Recently I saw some episodes on TV, of a series about the brave people who volunteer for the RNLI. They were tremendously circumspect about people who had needed to be rescued after going for a swim while drunk (eg), but I was furious about the risk they endure for idiots!!

I agree that there is a regrettable shortage of common sense, but I’m not convinced that it’s any worse now than it used to be.
Looking back sixty years to when I was a small girl, I can rememember frequent ‘tuttings’ about the stupid things that were done under the pretext of “Well, I didn’t know!”, and of course “ Young people these days!” has been doing the rounds since Noah was a lad.
I do think that there is more of a sense of entitlement around, tho’. Blame has to be apportioned, and no one will admit that they were silly and have paid the price.

Eloethan

The countryside (and indeed towns and cities) is becoming ugly with signs everywhere. Notices, parking, directions, diversions, warnings, must not, do not, stop/go, ads and sandwich boards cluttering pavements.
We don't need a nanny state where, if we're not told NOT to do something, we assume that we CAN do it, instead of using our own logic and reason.
It all comes down to the OP's headline - personal responsibility.

Years ago s friend ‘flipped’ his bond bug. Someone called an smbulance. He was checked at scene but not taken to hospital.
A few weeks later he got a letter requesting a set payment which, the letter said, could be claimed from his insurance.
Maybe in the event of ANY accident the insurance could pay?

All dogs should be on leads when they are near cliffs, fields with sheep in.
If there a wood nearby or an area such as a commen then they can run free. We never let our dogs off where farms are.
I have noticed lately it seems that a lot of people just don’t put leads on dogs even when walking along the road, we had a gentleman that used to ride his horse with a small cart around our little B roads, a dog not on a lead ran out barking at the horse who reared up and then bolted the poor man fell if and died from severe injuries, not the dogs fault it’s down to the owner.

There are hundreds of seals on many beaches around the Norfolk coast at the moment. In full moult so they're not as waterproof and just lounging around trying not to go into the sea too often. One dad was seen trying to sit his toddler onto the back of one to take a picture. Another hit one in an effort to make it move and drove it into the sea. These are big creatures with a big bite. There are signs saying to stay off the beach and give them a wide berth as they can move fast when need be yet there are idiots wandering amongst them. The common sense gene obviously passed them by.

We came across a warning sign by the sea in California - " Drowning is a once in a lifetime experience" I fear a lot of people here wouldn't get it!

I can’t believe some of the incidents of idiocy I’ve just read on here! “What has happened to common sense and personal responsibility?” Quite.

A friend flipped a Bond Bug years ago and the emergency services requested a payment from him but recouped from his insurance. Seems a good option, for me

I completely agree with the heading of this post. What has happened to common sense these days and personal responsibilty?
Maybe it's because there are so many petty fears promoted and so much over protection with all the fashionable semi protective clothing etc and meaningless safety platitudes that people sometimes don't see the bigger picture. They often fail to apply simple common sense to the possible risks of a new situation which might involve survival and would certainly have consequences if things went wrong.

There are cliffs close to where i live,on the East coast, and i cant believe the stupidity of people letting their dogs run free near them ,several dogs have gone over, some have died as a result
My dog is always on a lead [except on the beach],even in woods. as we also have some very thick wooded areas, and dogs have got lost never to be seen again, one poor dog was found by accident weeks later dead

The more that protection like signs and fences are put in place, the more we start to assume we will always be protected by signs and fences. I am afraid it's a natural psychological process.

Couldn't agree more with other Grans. Here in Oz there are usually a number of deaths EVERY year in various scenic spots because people (mostly young) have actually climbed over safety fences, ignored clear warning signs etc to take a "selfie" on unstable or steep cliff faces or decided that swimming in a well signed crocodile, jellyfish etc area would somehow be "fun"! Every year visitors are drowned, especially in our southern oceans, because visitors do not understand our powerful undertows and ignore lifesaving warnings and signs.

Honestly, just how stupid, vain, whatever (words fail me), do you have to be to do this? I feel for their grieving families but just wonder if common sense and respect for the power of nature was somehow missing in their upbringing.

Australia is a beautiful place to visit and live in and I have travelled in every State and Territory and as far north and south and east and west of this vast country as can be done but please respect local knowledge and understand that signs are put there for VERY good reasons. This, if course, applies everywhere.

We were warned about dangers so often when I was young. We were too scared to do anything. No, we did fished in ponds climbed trees etc. Although our parents would have blamed us if anything went wrong. Not others.

I once got a call from a Newspaper asking if I knew anything about an incident in my area, where a girl had been balancing on a large drain in a fenced off building site. I didn't, but the following day there were headlines in the paper showing how the girl had fallen into the hole, she was rewarded by the paper with chocolate and sweets by the paper!!!

Sorry repeating myself there.

It's the litigious society we gained from the America of 40 yrs ago. Everyone is scared of being sued (that's why schools shut for snow now when they would not have done so previously). Next generation then expect everything to be labelled as dangerous.

Seven people were killed at Camber Sands over a short period of time. If providing a notice and a lifeguard prevents a similar tragedy, then I think it's worth it. After all, there are lifeguards on other beaches.

katek
Agree .I live on the SW Atlantic coast and it will never cease to amaze me of the stupidity and ignorance of the human race. There have been fatalities and severe injuries , in the silly ?/summer season, concerning young men who had fallen off the cliff edge There was an issue, not unexpected from grieving relatives, that these areas of natural beauty should be ??fenced ??. I have also witnessed parents of young children allowing them inflated lilo's 'outside the red flag areas' where there will be dangers of being swept out to sea. There was a fatality several years ago of an eleven year old falling through an entrance into a disused mine.What harm was it doing , hardly part of the high way,given the fact the child would have had to climb a minimum of twenty mtrs up a cliff face to get to this entrance. There were notices at the base of the cliffs warning of concealed entrances plain enough to be seen.Should we have to seal and fence off everything of our heritage because there are those plainly lacking in common sense.

I think in places with notably MORE dangerous and unpredictable tides than normal there should be signs, but if there are warning signs everywhere then people would assume that everywhere is like the safe bathing beaches where the tide comes in slowly and there are no sudden drops or fast undertows - and just ignore them.