I am the first to admit we coddle children way to much these days. However this has been floating around on the net for a while. I wrote a response to it a while ago. I will try to remember what I wrote.
Those Born 1910-1970
READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO. IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE---VERY WELL STATED
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1920's 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
From the Surgeon General:
Smoking, according to a former U.S. Surgeon General, is probably the single most important modifiable cause of poor pregnancy outcome. Experts in many disciplines agree that smoking during pregnancy affects the health of the fetus and the newborn.http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/Views/Exhibit/narrative/smoking.htmlIn my opinion if you believe that smoking is healthy and has no effect on kids, don't have any.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Aspirin causes 7,600 deaths a year. Sure it's not the millions of deaths and aspirin is generally safe but lawyers love stuff like this. So no your kid can't have aspirin in school.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm#nsaidBlue Cheese dressing generally only affected those with allergies to the following:
milk or dairy products, certain types of mold. Peanuts are far more dangerous to those with allergies but we still eat those.
The problem with tuna fish isn't the tuna, it's the mercury, lead, and cadmium. While not fatal you can blame lead for knocking a few points off your IQ
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
And if you were the parent of a child who died of SIDS. You probably have enough guilt to want to take that comment and stuff it down the throat of the writer.
Maybe your kids are perfect for sports because of them chewing on lead based paints. Lord knows they aren't smart enough to be scientist.
http://www.alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/info1.htmlWe had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when werode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
And children died as a result of swallowing medication that wasn't for them.
Kids got into cabinets and swallowed cleaner products that may not have killed them but I am sure the kid liked having their stomach pumped and I am sure the parents were just thrilled by that adventure.
The helmets weren't so much to protect the kids from themselves as the idiot drivers out there who don't see the kids. Again I am sure those hospital trips for a cracked skull were just so much fun.
If you were hitchhiking as a kid (I am not talking teenager or older) you were likely picked up by the cops and brought home.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
And more people and children died and suffered serious injury because of it.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
I always thought so. I still do. But I also lost three friends when I was 20 because some moron ran a light and broadsided the pickup and killed the driver and two people riding in the back.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
And we still do. At least in my case. I do both. And I am on a well.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NOONE actually died from this.
No but we sat home for weeks wishing we were dead because we all had mono.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
Real butter like anything is fine in moderation. Sugar is fine too, Those cavities are not so good. And yes kids should go outside and play. They should get skinned knees. They should climb trees and have all the fun that kids should have. However any parent out there doesn't want their kid dead over something that could have been avoided.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No argument here.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O. K.
I had a dime with me so I could call mom at lunch time to let her know where I was and that I was ok. If I didn't call her I go grounded.
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 into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
And my dad was with me to make sure I hit the bushes and not driving out into traffic.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! S, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We had Atari, slot cars, plastic soliders, home chemistry sets and other items.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
I agree with this.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
No but tapeworms suck.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
Yes, my dad was a vehement anti-gun person as a result of being in the war. However if I was going to have a BB gun I was going to be responsible with it. And if I wasn't dad was taking it away and not giving it back. And he meant it.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
I was raised you knock first.And you don't just walk in.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
I have no agrument with this.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
No argument here.
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
And the next 50 will produce even better ones.
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!
If YOU are one of them? CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
As I said before this thing has been around the net for a bit. It is an the agrument that the following generation is a disappointment. An argument as old as time itself. This note just goes to show that the original author meets the definition of curmudgeon.
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
Well putting God in the pledge sure stop all those natural disasters, didn't it?
It's a cute note where the logic seems nice on the surface and underneath is nothing but rust.
