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Subject: Something to think about
Unsure if this has surfaced here before, but anyhoo:
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because...
Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same.
We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no one minded.
We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.
We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue we learned to get over it.
We walked to friends' homes.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live things, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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 to deal with it all.
And you're one of them. Congratulations!
Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.
(If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us).
Subject: Re: Something to think about
gawd all of that is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO true isnt it. I still freak when I think of how many cars in my street use to run over me while I was riding on my banana seat bike blindfolded with no hands - imagine the law suits today !!!!!!!!!!!!
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Quoting:
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
End Quote
This precious freedom taken by stealth, apparently for our own good. What suckers we are! :(
That was very poignant GR.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
You beat me to it Goreripper. I was waiting for a friend to forward this to me so I could post it here.
How true it all is. Makes me wonder how much today's children are missing out.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
I let my kids do nearly ALL of this stuff. And yes, people think I'm crazy! I figure, *I* turned out OK! I'm not dead yet, at least. As far as I'm concerned, my children are going to have ALL of the same opportunities I had, and no one is going to stop them. Just because some parents didn't pay attention to their children, and something bad happened, doesn't mean they have the right to restrict me or my children.
I'd rather my kids have a chance to experience life, not watch it from within a protective bubble.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Quoting:
I let my kids do nearly ALL of this stuff. And yes, people think I'm crazy! I figure, *I* turned out OK! I'm not dead yet, at least. As far as I'm concerned, my children are going to have ALL of the same opportunities I had, and no one is going to stop them. Just because some parents didn't pay attention to their children, and something bad happened, doesn't mean they have the right to restrict me or my children.
I'd rather my kids have a chance to experience life, not watch it from within a protective bubble.
End Quote
I agree. I want my children to enjoy their childhood.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Quoting:
I let my kids do nearly ALL of this stuff. And yes, people think I'm crazy! I figure, *I* turned out OK! I'm not dead yet, at least. As far as I'm concerned, my children are going to have ALL of the same opportunities I had, and no one is going to stop them. Just because some parents didn't pay attention to their children, and something bad happened, doesn't mean they have the right to restrict me or my children.
I'd rather my kids have a chance to experience life, not watch it from within a protective bubble.
End Quote
Exactly! I am bound and determined not to have my kids sit in front of computers and Playstation for hours on end. They love being outside, cry when it's too dark to play anymore, fall down, scrape their knees and are still doing just fine. Kids today are sheltered and a$$-kissed to the point of being overweight, lazy, disrespectful blobs.
(climbing down from soapbox) ;D
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Its amazing when I think about it... I only got my mobile phone two and a half years ago but now I don't know how I'd cope without it :-/ I probably would...just about...hehe.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Quoting:We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.End Quote
Been there, done that! ;D ::)
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Quoting:
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play withEnd Quote
i figured out how to open the cabinates. and i was pretty good at escaping from those child leashes... ;D
Quoting:We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.End Quote
what are those games? or are they objects? ???
Subject: Re: Something to think about
I remember times from back in the 80's when I used to play handball and Nintendo all the time.Now,those times are gone and my friend moved away. :(
Howard
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Quoting:
gawd all of that is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO true isnt it. I still freak when I think of how many cars in my street use to run over me while I was riding on my banana seat bike blindfolded with no hands - imagine the law suits today !!!!!!!!!!!!
End Quote
:o :P :PGee,wearing a helkmet doesn't do much good if they run over something besides your head!!!Cheers! :P
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Okay, so I'm not the only "bad mommy" by today's standards ;D
I have to admit, though, I do have the latches on the cabinets, not to protect my children--to protect the stuff that's in them.
I also make sure my kids are always in their seat belts, too--to avoid the ticket.
Quoting:We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.End Quote
This one especially hits home as I have a neighbor who is suing another (and their landscaper)over their kids getting hurt on the sidewalk in their front yard. Nevermind that the one who got hurt (age 11)was riding on her older brother's (age 14) handlebars over some wood that was laid to protect the sidewalk, which their youngest (age 8) had moved to make a ramp and fell off and broke her arm, requiring surgery. AND that the mom told them multiple times not to do so. ::)
Subject: Re: Something to think about
As a CHILD OF THE 90'S (ooh bad word), I:
never wore that freaking helmet much, even though it saved from at least one major head injury.
drank from the hose.
ate as unhealthly as I liked and as far as I can tell have suffered no consequences.
share drinks all the time.
rode with no seat belt (side note: was this really a good thing?)
did very stupid things on a bike and on a skateboard.
gotten smacked in the face with a baseball more than a few times.
fell out of trees.
had non-Internet friends.
fought with my cousins constantly.
walked to friends' homes.
made up games with tennis balls and whatever was lying around.
wore coats by the hood.
And mind you, I spent an inordinate amount of time sitting on my 8-year-old ass watching cartoons. There were plenty of kids more active than me.
Times change. Kids don't.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
As a corollory:
I have a seven-year-old who will climb anything, and is the safest climber I've seen (last year, at a friend's climbing party at the local sports centre, he made it to the top of the 10m wall, giving his father palpitations); he's also a dab hand at taking lids off "child-proof" medicine bottles...
Like his siblings, he eats loads of junk (but also eats loads of good stuff, given that his mother feeds her children well), but has been known to play football for a 12-hour stretch, so fat is out of the question
Main downside is that the children only have a couple of friends within walking distance - and they're still a bit too far down main roads to let them walk alone.
Though what we are talking about here is understanding and management of risk; or rather the lack of understanding of risk statistics combined with the over-hyping of when things go wrong. 99.9% of children doing things safely isn't news.. but that 1 in 1000 event hits the front page, so now everybody thinks *their* child is in danger. Legislators wrongly believe they have to do something about it... lawyers (and victims/parents) think they can make money by suing... and you end up with the bollocks we have today.
However, don't forget that back in the 50s and 60s there were more child tragedies than we have today - obviously they didn't happen to us, as we're still here to talk the free and easy childhoods we all had... you could argue that these children broke arms, legs and necks so that we could enjoy the freedoms we had (even if the cause-and-effect is all wrong there). Who's to say which is the better world?
Phil
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Okay, so I'm the youngest person on this board, and I don't really feel familiar with any of the stuff that was mentioned. But now, in this paranoid, overprotected, law-suit addicted spoilt little world of kids today, wouldn't we feel more compelled to rebel? I mean, don't people always want something if they can't have it?
Sorry. Philosophy really isn't my thing.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
I miss those days when I accidently cursed and got soap in my mouth.I miss those days! :D ;D
Howard
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Nice one, Howard! I got the soap grated on my teeth! :-X
We live in a sanitised world were we can't do anything or say anything without fear of contamination or legislation.
The irony is, if children can't do anything. They get overweight and run the course of getting diabetes and ill health.
If they can't say anything, children run the risk of developing neurotic behaviour traits.
I have heard in Britain that the liberals are getting that worried about the increase of child obesity, they are preparing to put a VAT on junk food/drink - whether or not they can apply this is another matter.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Man, kid-hood should be about total freedom!! Biking around, eating watercress from a pure spring, playing pick-up baseball or soccer games, goin' fishin', snow ball fights, sledding down "deadman's run. I did all that stuff, and (to my x's consternation) so did my kids. And Dad was always there to pick up the pieces, kiss the booboos, and revel in the fun.
Subject: Re: Something to think about
olny thing i think gore forgot to mention was them lovley lawn dart our parents gave us to play with... anyone remember them... ??? im prolly one of the reasons they banned em...
i took one in my head.. :o..and it dident tickle..they also dident have child proof caps on meds when i was lil.. i drank a whole bottle of antibotics..and i fed my sister moth balls.. we survied....what dosent kill ya ..makes ya stronger.. ;D
Subject: Re: Something to think about
Quoting:
..they also dident have child proof caps on meds when i was lil.. End Quote
i remember being about five or six years old when my grandmother was visiting. she was having problems opening the pill bottle because of the child safety lid, so she had me open 'em up instead. (i figured it out when i was four from watching my parents open the bottles...) ::) ;D