You're asking this at a site filled with nerds who always got beat up at dodgeball and tag?
My kid hates dodgeball, and it was quite a surprise when her PE teacher said that unlike in elementary school, in middle school you can aim for the head. This is in a school district where half the parents are doctors and lawyers. The rule was recently changed.
I agree with at the very least putting limits on these games but not for "self-esteem" (a recently published survey of incoming freshmen says we've got a massive number of narcissitic, self-absorbed kids these days--something our own membership kinda bears out!
), the problem for me is that it *rewards* the *sociopaths* that are lurking everywhere in society, by letting them (and others) think that might-makes-right. I don't want to encourage these idiots: make them obey all sorts of restrictions so they end up on time-out or in the principal's office where they belong.
It seems to me that if anything, these games have *lost* the rules that were in place when I was a kid in order to "let the kids express themselves" and "get their anger out" which is stupid.
This is not so much an example of over-protective parents (something I have plenty of evidence for from *other* areas), but an marked loss in self-dicipline and responsibility both in parents and their kids.
Can you tell me why its a good idea to let kids hit eachother in the head with a dodgeball, or do a "dogpile" in tag? Do you want to pay the medical bills for me?
Sensible limits are in order,
Buffy
Your Friendly Neighborhood Administrator
Sorry about that. 
