CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940s, 50's, 60's 70's
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always exciting and great fun.. We drank water from the garden hose or tap and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank cordial with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running in to the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, No video games at all,No 99 channels,No Pay TV, No cable, No DVD movies or surround sound. It's crazy! We even had No mobile phones, No text messaging, No personal computers, No Internet or Internet chat rooms..........
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did notlive in us forever.
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we didn't poke out anyone's eye.. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Local teams had try outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of..
They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas..
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how todeal with it all!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to offer my thoughts with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good....... and while you are at it, tell it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with your eyes shut holding a pair of scissors, doesn't it?!
PS -The BIG type is because at your age, your eyes are buggered....
-Right on! We played our own games without adults telling us what to do. We made up our own rules which we as a group deemed to be fair. Winning wasn't what it was all about; having fun was.
-Perhaps the most important thing in my life was when my parents took the teacher's side against my lack of classroom commitment. It turned my life around. But today, teachers don't get the support of parents and kids routinely mouth off to their elders.
-We had more freedom then too. We weren't enroled in all sorts of organized activities. We invented our own activities and those friendships we forged in doing so lasted a lifetime.
-There was no TV, so we read books, and the lessons we learned were enormous.
-We knew the rules and if we ever got out of line, the punishment from our parents was swift and severe, but always fair.
-Family time was important. Dinner and breakfast was always a time when the family gathered and discussed things. (Wash your hands before dinner, sit up straight, don't interrupt, wait your turn, get your elbows off the table, but they did listen to us.)
And condolences, I suppose, to the kids or families of the kids who were injured, disabled or killed by unused seatbelts, FAS, smoking-induced low birth weight, access to a pill bottle, abusive or predatory adults, etc.
Yeah, some of the points make sense - too much tv or video games and not enough running around or whatever - but I find it ridiculous to bemoan sensible laws and behavior regarding health and safety.
Originally posted by mikelomI'm not sure so much is different now; I was born in the late 1980s and my childhood looked a lot like this (except that my mother doesn't smoke and is allergic to aspirin 😛), although school suddenly became very politically correct around 1995.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940s, 50's, 60's 70's
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paint sn't it?!
PS -The BIG type is because at your age, your eyes are buggered....
Originally posted by ChronicLeakyDo you make model gliders from Balsa wood and slice your fingers open with a scalpel and go and sit quietly with toilet roll wrapped around your cut.... dreaming of getting it finished and flying? 😉
I'm not sure so much is different now; I was born in the late 1980s and my childhood looked a lot like this (except that my mother doesn't smoke and is allergic to aspirin 😛), although school suddenly became very politically correct around 1995.
Originally posted by mikelomNo, but I made forts out of things destroyed in blizzards and fell out of trees and crashed my bicycle had rock fights without anyone getting sued.
Do you make model gliders from Balsa wood and slice your fingers open with a scalpel and go and sit quietly with toilet roll wrapped around your cut.... dreaming of getting it finished and flying? 😉
I hope your glider flew eventually, though 🙂.
Originally posted by mikelomI'm not sure why I would want to offer your thoughts. But here's one of mine: If that age we grew up in was so wonderful, then why did we make all those laws?
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940s, 50's, 60's 70's
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to offer my thoughts with others who have had the ...[text shortened]... arents were.
PS -The BIG type is because at your age, your eyes are buggered....