KIDS THESE DAYS:

I’ll tell you again that if you are not following the online threads attached to many of the news stories and columns in this newspaper, you are missing a lot of valuable information and a lot of fun.

In fact, newspapers looking to create the bridge from print to electronic versions should pay close attention to the Daily Pilot model.

Here’s a good example: What started out as a rather sedate column about a father-son weekend trip to Yosemite National Park and my son overcoming an extreme physical challenge wound up with one online reader posting an online message that my head was as hard as Half Dome.

In a moment, I’ll tell you how it deteriorated to that level. In the meantime, there were some factual improvements by a reader who liked the story but wanted to let me know that I added 1,000 feet to Half Dome’s height and 125 feet to the length of the punishing cables at the end of the hike. Thanks to “MrHalfDome” for the updates.

Apparently not content to enjoy a warm story about father-son bonding, a reader who calls themselves “halfdomespeaks” questioned the wisdom of taking my 15-year-old on such a difficult trek (one note: Unlike others who get themselves into a twist over the issue, anonymous posts do not bother me. I am grateful for any civil communication and if someone does not wish to reveal his name, I really don’t care).

The issue was how our priorities have gotten out of whack and how emotional arguments can get in the way of what should be a straightforward, rational discussion about choices, even the choice to light fireworks.

On July 15, halfdomespeaks wrote, “…read the section on accidents and you will find more fatalities on Half Dome. This writer romanticizes the hike while dismissing the dangers. Note [sic] a good article on hiking.”

I’m not sure where the romanticization came in because I wrote in that column about the cables, “Oh, and if you slip and lose your footing, you’re dead.” Not very romantic to me.

I guess “halfdomespeaks” missed the whole father-son thing that was the subject of the column and went straight to the safety of the trek.

That left me wide open to ask “halfdomespeaks” whether he or she thought it was safer to hike to the top of Half Dome or to continue to allow my kids to ride their bikes several miles a day through the streets of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

I never got an answer, but the exchange reminded me of a great reference by Daily Pilot columnist Byron de Arakal, who warned about placing our kids in a protective bubble because they could suffocate in there.

If you have never had children, you cannot imagine the intensity of raising them in 2008. At every turn, there is some preacher like me telling parents kids watch too much TV, someone else telling them they have too much or too little homework and someone else telling them they’re too fat or too skinny.

Even presidential candidate Barack Obama has offered parenting advice. As far as I know, Obama has not said anything about whether we should continue to allow fireworks in Costa Mesa so that youth organizations in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa can survive.

But I have to believe he and his rival, John McCain, would agree all child safety issues have to be put in their proper perspective.

Logic, it seems, is not enough for the bubble people. They want to make sure we child-proof our world from the tiny chances children be seriously hurt from irrational sources while they continue to ignore the real dangers from commonplace activities.

That’s when a 425-foot hike up Half Dome’s cables, where only one person has died since they were installed in 1919, becomes more dangerous than navigating miles of Harbor Boulevard or 17th Street on a bicycle.

Next year, I think Roy and I will give the bubble people something else to talk about: I’m considering a father-son skydiving trip.

STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Send story ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com.