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Post by Cranky on Feb 18, 2007 17:14:38 GMT -5
For those born before 1980:
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 can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored 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 pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop 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 into the bushes a few times, we learned the hard way gow to become problem solvers.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 799 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, or no TV in some cases, no cell phones, 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. Heck, we even got an occasional smack for being so careless.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not have a chance.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
We had lawn darts and learned how to stay out of harms way.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not become a sciety of cyclops.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Those who did, had to learn how to win or deal with ridicule.
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 TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
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Post by jkr on Feb 18, 2007 20:45:37 GMT -5
One of my uncles drove VW Beetles for years that used to come with a luggage space behind the back seat big enough for one suitcase or one 6 year old child. Whenever we visited, I insisted on a ride in that spot. We used to cruise around while I stood in that space & looked out the back window. No one ever considered what would happen if the car got rear ended. I survived.  |
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Post by Skilly on Feb 18, 2007 23:32:19 GMT -5
I am only 35 .... and all the things you say I can't believe how many of them are universal. The only thing there I can see that doesn't apply to me is the video games. I had an Atari.  But then I grew a great distain for video games about the time Genesis came out .. |
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Post by Tattac on Feb 20, 2007 2:26:13 GMT -5
I read a Russian version of it (I think I even saved it) a couple of years ago. Funny that half of it is the same. It is truly a universal thing!
I wonder who was the first to write it.
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Post by Rimmer on Feb 20, 2007 6:16:38 GMT -5
hey, I was born before 1980., and I'm not nowhere near 40  anyway, I have a sister 11 years younger than I and our generations are so apart that you cannot even imagine it. it's no wonder then that the difference between your generation and new ones is so huge. R. |
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Post by Tattac on Feb 20, 2007 8:01:51 GMT -5
hey, I was born before 1980., and I'm not nowhere near 40 anyway, I have a sister 11 years younger than I and our generations are so apart that you cannot even imagine it. it's no wonder then that the difference between your generation and new ones is so huge. R. In our case (my brother is 9 years younger than me) it is also connected with political changes in our countries. They grew up in a different environment (both politics and economy wise). |
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Post by Rimmer on Feb 21, 2007 4:08:31 GMT -5
that's true. if nothing else, socialism/communism does teach you a bit of humility. and it beats the 'transition to capitalism' period hands down...
R.
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Post by franko on Feb 21, 2007 11:33:18 GMT -5
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned...HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And today . . . Too Safe for Their Own Good [excerpts] What's a bubble-wrapped kid?I'm talking about kids who are being denied opportunities to experience risk and responsibility. I began to notice in my practice a group of young people who were coming from quite stable, nurturing, middle-class homes, and they were showing up for one of two reasons -- either they were very compliant young people with depression and anxiety and an incapacity to take on responsibility or to show much common sense in getting on with their lives, or they were coming in with very dangerous, risk-taking behaviours that they had come up with on their own to cope with what they were telling me were very restrictive or overprotective environments at home. So in both cases it was rooted in the same phenomenon?In either case what they didn't have was an opportunity to sink their teeth into some adventure, to have some responsibility, to take some risks, and so -- especially the more dangerous ones -- they were trying to find some way of having that adventure from what they perceived as available options, and unfortunately many of those weren't good. You hardly see kids on the streets, except right in front of their houses. Kids don't go out and explore, especially not without helmets.The helmets aren't necessarily the problem. The problem is we're not letting them develop street sense. When my children were younger, I would sometimes take a group of them for a bicycle ride, and some of their friends had no idea that you hang to the right, or how you cross a street. Nobody had ever given them those experiences that develop common sense and get them street-savvy. the rest of The Bubble-Wrapped Child |
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Post by Yossarian on Feb 21, 2007 22:05:58 GMT -5
I was born in 1968 so I'm just under that threshold...but I can relate to a lot of the observations noted.
The thing I don't understand is the amount of kids with severe and life threatening allergies these days. I just don't remember this being an issue when I was a kid.
I practically lived on peanut butter and nutella as a kid (yes, sometimes together!!). If I sent my daughter to school with a sandwich of either, the police would show up at my door to arrest me for attempted murder. I have to read every label of every single snack I send with my daughter, to make sure there is no trace of nuts.
I also have a good friend of mine whose son has a life threatening allergy to eggs, of all things. The poor kid can die by eating birthday cake. I don't understand how allergies have become so common and severe.
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Post by franko on Feb 21, 2007 22:24:17 GMT -5
I practically lived on peanut butter and nutella as a kid (yes, sometimes together!!). Me too. Still do when my wife is away. PB and strawberry jam . . . yum, yum. And I grill a mean cheese sandwich, too. I survive a bit better during b-b-q season. Allergies: 2 reasons, methinks. The first goes back to HA's orignal post: no one is allowed to be sick (a kid with the sniffles is kept at home, and certainly can't go to school/daycare because he may infect the other kids. So we don't build up resistance, and then we overmedicate/prescribe and the bugs just get stronger. Add to that that everything is sterile/sterilized, from dishes to food to whatever. I remember sneaking raw hamburger as my mom tried to cook it (only to get my fingers slapped -- but that wouldn't happen today -- a kid would sue!). Now everything has to be overcooked in order to kill the bacteria, so again, no resistance. Don't get me wrong, I realize that we have to be careful, but we tend to overdo it. A bunch of kids drinking from the same bottle? Commonplace, then; disgusting, today. The second hinges on the fact that we are such a "clean" society. We bathe every day (my daughter can -- and does -- drain a 60 gallon hot water tank taking a shower). We need to be a little dirty (not that kind of dirty, though). Some people go overboard and forget that cleanliness is desired and BO is not, but everything is antibacterial and superclean, so again, no build-up of resistance. We are hearing about water shortages and will as the days go by. So bathe/shower every other day (if we all stink a bit we won't be able to tell anyway). Oh, a third reason: additives. By emptying our food of nutrition and filling it with preservatives our bodies don't know what to do, so they throw off what seems strange to them. No facts; no sources . . . just my thoughts. |
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Post by Skilly on Feb 21, 2007 22:28:57 GMT -5
I was born in 1968 so I'm just under that threshold...but I can relate to a lot of the observations noted. The thing I don't understand is the amount of kids with severe and life threatening allergies these days. I just don't remember this being an issue when I was a kid. I practically lived on peanut butter and nutella as a kid (yes, sometimes together!!). If I sent my daughter to school with a sandwich of either, the police would show up at my door to arrest me for attempted murder. I have to read every label of every single snack I send with my daughter, to make sure there is no trace of nuts. I also have a good friend of mine whose son has a life threatening allergy to eggs, of all things. The poor kid can die by eating birthday cake. I don't understand how allergies have become so common and severe. I blame it on the over-use (and doctors over-prescribing) anti-biotics. When I look back, I hardly ever went to a doctor unless I got a bad fever and just waited the illnesses out. If I had to lie in bed for a few days, thats what I did ... but I was rarely sick so when I was sick it wouldnt even cross mine or my mother's mind to go to the doctor. Nowadays, and my wife is as guilty of this as anyone, the slightest thing that could be wrong is a trip to the doctor. And try leaving a doctors office now after visiting him without a prescription for an anti-biotic. Since I have been married and got a family doctor (never had one growing up really, if I was sick I went to the ER ... like I said very rare), I have had more anti-biotics prescribed to me in the 4 years of marriage then the other 31 COMBINED. |
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Post by roke on Feb 21, 2007 23:16:16 GMT -5
Since I have been married and got a family doctor (never had one growing up really, if I was sick I went to the ER ... like I said very rare), I have had more anti-biotics prescribed to me in the 4 years of marriage then the other 31 COMBINED. Not to mention the antibiotics given to the animals you eat. |
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Post by MC Habber on Feb 22, 2007 17:25:47 GMT -5
Don't get me wrong, I realize that we have to be careful, but we tend to overdo it. A bunch of kids drinking from the same bottle? Commonplace, then; disgusting, today. It was still commonplace when I was a kid (not so long ago), despite scares about meningitis. I'd be a little suprised if that's really changed. |
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Post by CentreHice on Feb 22, 2007 18:07:06 GMT -5
Since I have been married and got a family doctor (never had one growing up really, if I was sick I went to the ER ... like I said very rare), I have had more anti-biotics prescribed to me in the 4 years of marriage then the other 31 COMBINED. Yeah, marriage can do that to ya...... Just remember, in sickness and in health.... Signed, 25 years and counting... |
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Post by Skilly on Feb 22, 2007 18:29:01 GMT -5
Since I have been married and got a family doctor (never had one growing up really, if I was sick I went to the ER ... like I said very rare), I have had more anti-biotics prescribed to me in the 4 years of marriage then the other 31 COMBINED. Yeah, marriage can do that to ya...... Just remember, in sickness and in health.... Signed, 25 years and counting... I said to my wife once ... I gave you 2 rings and you were so sweet to give me two back also. She looked at me .."what" .... I said "I gave you an engagement ring and a wedding ring, and you gave me a wedding ring and suffer-ring!" oooohhhhh the look I got!! ;D 4 years and the shed will be heated this summer!! |
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