September 11, 2026 • 6 mins
We got a question in for our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson…
Dear Mamas, am I a horrible mother because I let my son climb trees in the park?
If you'd like to ask our American Mamas a question, go to our website, AmericanGroundRadio.com/mamas and click on the Ask the Mamas button.
Dear Mamas, am I a horrible mother because I let my son climb trees in the park?
If you'd like to ask our American Mamas a question, go to our website, AmericanGroundRadio.com/mamas and click on the Ask the Mamas button.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got a question for our American Mamas. Dear Mamas,
am I a horrible mother because I let my son
climb trees in a park? Well, let's ask our American Mamas. Mamas, Mamas, Mamas.
And I told me not to come.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
She said, that ain't the way to happen, no.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And joining us now are our American Mamas, Terry Nedeville
and Kimberly Burleson. Okay, so... I used to climb trees
as a kid.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah. Is letting kids climb trees a bad thing now?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Because I used to climb.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
The trees in my front yard, and they were like
two-story trees. I mean, I went pretty high up in
those trees. Is that a bad thing now?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Apparently, to some parents, you're a horrible parent if you
let your kid climb a tree because it's dangerous.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know, it happened at a park. You know, these
parents were just horrified that this mom was letting her
child scale the tree, and then she came right back down. And...
people were shaming her, you know, and judging her, and
she was like, we had tree houses. We climbed trees. Like,
what is wrong with people? These helicopter parents. We talk
(01:11):
about the past, and we romanticize the past and what
we did as children, and then we condemn people for
basically doing what was done in the past.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I remember the playgrounds of the past were Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Very different.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah. The monkey bars alone. I know.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I know.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
The spinning thing.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Oh, no, that's, so the merry, yeah, the merry-go-round.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
The metal.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
The metal merry-go-round, those things.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
But just the, you know, well, the metal slide, which
would give you third-degree burns in the summer. But the
monkey bars, you know, like the dome that you would
climb up to the top, man, I broke my arm
on one of those things.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Everybody did. I mean, we did the lemon drop off
of those things.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah, I think back to our childhood, and I'm, Sometimes
there will be reels that will come across my phone,
and it's of like the 80s or 70s when little
kids are building ramps. And you've got like three little
friends laying down right in front of that ramp so
that the guy that's riding the bike is going to
evil-knievel it, going to ride over those friends of his.
(02:15):
And those were the days, man, we had to stay outside.
You know, this is when our grandmothers covered their furniture
with plastic and told us to stay outside anyway. But
we didn't have the fear of getting hurt because if
we got hurt, you just.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Dealt with it, you know? I think the problem is
we have the fear with our own kids.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You know, we had a little girl in our neighborhood.
Susan Pullis lived across the street. She was my best friend.
She had this, you know, two little girls, one little girl.
You know those little wiggle racers? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So my heel, our cul-de-sac goes down at a, you know,
really steep heel. And her little four-year-old would be on
that little wiggle racer with no shoes on, no helmet on,
feet up in the air, going a hundred miles an hour.
And I literally was not breathing the whole time. And
I'm going, Susan, Susan, Susan, Susan, Susan. She was like,
she's fine. She's fine. She hits the end of the cul-de-sac,
(03:05):
flies into the neighbor's grass. She gets up, laughs, and
wants to do it again. And I literally am about
to faint. I cannot believe it. My brother-in-law said, you
should have had more suns. You should have had more
sons because Terry's boys would fight. And I'm telling you,
they would fight.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Lindsay's boys would fight and they still do. And I
am not, cannot breathe. I cannot handle it. And I
think it's personalities. Like I just get so nervous. Somebody's
going to hurt themselves and other people. I think you
got to have sons to be like, it's okay. If
they break an arm, they break an arm. And so
I think all those moms that were judging her are
just more like me. They're just scared. Somebody's going to,
(03:46):
you know, hurt themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
You know, until you hurt your brother, he doesn't stop
picking on you.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I wonder if there's really something to that. Like, is
it moms of boys, do they become a little more
relaxed about things like that?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Mark Driscoll's a pastor in Arizona. He's a Apparently friends
with Charlie Kirk, but he's big on social media. But
he's got a clip like, yeah, if you're parents of boys,
it's just different than raising girls because.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You're going to climb trees.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yes. Kimberly and I had some doozies.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Fights.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Like, fights, fights.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Not just verbal. Mom was like, why don't y'all love
each other?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So I tell my friends who are younger that have
little girls, they're like, oh, my gosh, they're fighting.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I'm like, listen.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Listen. We freaking fought. You know, if I wore anything
out of her closet, it was on.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Like Donkey Kong.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
She didn't ask for my permission.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yeah. And so she would, with her long fingernails that
she could grow, would call me, and I would just
punch the fire out of her.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I know we've shared it before, but we got in
a huge fight. We were in high school. Yeah. And
we were on the school bus.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And the principal was the driver of the school bus.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And we were, I'm talking punching. Back and forth on
the seats. We were the first one he picked up. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
So it was just the two of us.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Just the two of you on the bus. Back and
forth on this side, this side.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Two of us.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
He pulled over. Yeah. Yeah, he pulled over and he said,
do you want me to turn this bus around and
tell you? And we're like, no, sir. You know what
else he said?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It was so embarrassing. He said, what would your, y'all
just made the homecoming court. What would your friends think?
And we're like, with blood. They know.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
They know what we do. We love each other, but
I'm sure it was.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Over me borrowing something out of her closet.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
She had better taste.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
She knew what to buy.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That was not... It was something bigger, I'm sure. But
my mom, she used the wooden spoon. She would pop
us with the wooden spoon. So we got called into
his office, and he had put a wooden spoon up
on his wall with our name on it.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Oh, my.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And said, if I ever... Catch y'all fighting like that again.
I'm a sophomore in high school when this happened.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I can't believe that.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But did you climb trees?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah. No, but our mom, that's what we were saying.
We would be like saying, Mom, you got to get down.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
She loved climbing trees.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Your mom climbed trees.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
She loved them.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
If you'd like to ask our American Mamas a question,
go to our website, AmericanGroundRadio.com. Click on the Ask the
Mamas button.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Kimberly Burleson, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Thank you.
We got a question for our American Mamas. Dear Mamas,
am I a horrible mother because I let my son
climb trees in a park? Well, let's ask our American Mamas. Mamas, Mamas, Mamas.
And I told me not to come.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
She said, that ain't the way to happen, no.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And joining us now are our American Mamas, Terry Nedeville
and Kimberly Burleson. Okay, so... I used to climb trees
as a kid.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah. Is letting kids climb trees a bad thing now?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Because I used to climb.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
The trees in my front yard, and they were like
two-story trees. I mean, I went pretty high up in
those trees. Is that a bad thing now?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Apparently, to some parents, you're a horrible parent if you
let your kid climb a tree because it's dangerous.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know, it happened at a park. You know, these
parents were just horrified that this mom was letting her
child scale the tree, and then she came right back down. And...
people were shaming her, you know, and judging her, and
she was like, we had tree houses. We climbed trees. Like,
what is wrong with people? These helicopter parents. We talk
(01:11):
about the past, and we romanticize the past and what
we did as children, and then we condemn people for
basically doing what was done in the past.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I remember the playgrounds of the past were Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Very different.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah. The monkey bars alone. I know.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I know.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
The spinning thing.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Oh, no, that's, so the merry, yeah, the merry-go-round.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
The metal.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
The metal merry-go-round, those things.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
But just the, you know, well, the metal slide, which
would give you third-degree burns in the summer. But the
monkey bars, you know, like the dome that you would
climb up to the top, man, I broke my arm
on one of those things.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Everybody did. I mean, we did the lemon drop off
of those things.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah, I think back to our childhood, and I'm, Sometimes
there will be reels that will come across my phone,
and it's of like the 80s or 70s when little
kids are building ramps. And you've got like three little
friends laying down right in front of that ramp so
that the guy that's riding the bike is going to
evil-knievel it, going to ride over those friends of his.
(02:15):
And those were the days, man, we had to stay outside.
You know, this is when our grandmothers covered their furniture
with plastic and told us to stay outside anyway. But
we didn't have the fear of getting hurt because if
we got hurt, you just.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Dealt with it, you know? I think the problem is
we have the fear with our own kids.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You know, we had a little girl in our neighborhood.
Susan Pullis lived across the street. She was my best friend.
She had this, you know, two little girls, one little girl.
You know those little wiggle racers? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So my heel, our cul-de-sac goes down at a, you know,
really steep heel. And her little four-year-old would be on
that little wiggle racer with no shoes on, no helmet on,
feet up in the air, going a hundred miles an hour.
And I literally was not breathing the whole time. And
I'm going, Susan, Susan, Susan, Susan, Susan. She was like,
she's fine. She's fine. She hits the end of the cul-de-sac,
(03:05):
flies into the neighbor's grass. She gets up, laughs, and
wants to do it again. And I literally am about
to faint. I cannot believe it. My brother-in-law said, you
should have had more suns. You should have had more
sons because Terry's boys would fight. And I'm telling you,
they would fight.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Lindsay's boys would fight and they still do. And I
am not, cannot breathe. I cannot handle it. And I
think it's personalities. Like I just get so nervous. Somebody's
going to hurt themselves and other people. I think you
got to have sons to be like, it's okay. If
they break an arm, they break an arm. And so
I think all those moms that were judging her are
just more like me. They're just scared. Somebody's going to,
(03:46):
you know, hurt themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
You know, until you hurt your brother, he doesn't stop
picking on you.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I wonder if there's really something to that. Like, is
it moms of boys, do they become a little more
relaxed about things like that?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Mark Driscoll's a pastor in Arizona. He's a Apparently friends
with Charlie Kirk, but he's big on social media. But
he's got a clip like, yeah, if you're parents of boys,
it's just different than raising girls because.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You're going to climb trees.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yes. Kimberly and I had some doozies.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Fights.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Like, fights, fights.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Not just verbal. Mom was like, why don't y'all love
each other?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So I tell my friends who are younger that have
little girls, they're like, oh, my gosh, they're fighting.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I'm like, listen.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Listen. We freaking fought. You know, if I wore anything
out of her closet, it was on.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Like Donkey Kong.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
She didn't ask for my permission.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yeah. And so she would, with her long fingernails that
she could grow, would call me, and I would just
punch the fire out of her.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I know we've shared it before, but we got in
a huge fight. We were in high school. Yeah. And
we were on the school bus.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And the principal was the driver of the school bus.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And we were, I'm talking punching. Back and forth on
the seats. We were the first one he picked up. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
So it was just the two of us.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Just the two of you on the bus. Back and
forth on this side, this side.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Two of us.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
He pulled over. Yeah. Yeah, he pulled over and he said,
do you want me to turn this bus around and
tell you? And we're like, no, sir. You know what
else he said?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It was so embarrassing. He said, what would your, y'all
just made the homecoming court. What would your friends think?
And we're like, with blood. They know.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
They know what we do. We love each other, but
I'm sure it was.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Over me borrowing something out of her closet.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
She had better taste.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
She knew what to buy.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That was not... It was something bigger, I'm sure. But
my mom, she used the wooden spoon. She would pop
us with the wooden spoon. So we got called into
his office, and he had put a wooden spoon up
on his wall with our name on it.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Oh, my.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And said, if I ever... Catch y'all fighting like that again.
I'm a sophomore in high school when this happened.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I can't believe that.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But did you climb trees?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah. No, but our mom, that's what we were saying.
We would be like saying, Mom, you got to get down.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
She loved climbing trees.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Your mom climbed trees.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
She loved them.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
If you'd like to ask our American Mamas a question,
go to our website, AmericanGroundRadio.com. Click on the Ask the
Mamas button.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Kimberly Burleson, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Thank you.
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