For all those who survived.....
Journal Entry: Mon Nov 5, 2007, 4:20 PM
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 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.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes..
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs 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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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 Kool-aid made with sugar, 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 to solve the problem.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, 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 fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
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 poke out very many eyes.
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!
Little League had tryouts 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!
These generations have 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!
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?!
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornado's, 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?"
For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this.
For the rest of us...pass this ON!
- Mood:
- Listening to: Nothing Else Matters.....
- Reading: Book of the Dead
- Watching: Dancing with the Stars!
- Playing: with Crusty and Pumpkin - the kittens
- Eating: Banana Chips and Pistachios
- Drinking: Big Peach!
Devious Comments
Internet socializing is real socializing. Kids need unsupervised play with peers, other kids who are their equals, chances to solve their own social problems and work things out themselves rather than always being told what to do by adults. It stifles creativity to have all that oversupervision, it raises people who aren't responsible for anything because they were never allowed to be responsible for themselves or go into situations where it's safe to make mistakes and bad decisions and learn from them.
The curfews are horrendous. I am so against the curfews, because tweens and teens get into bitter family conflicts and those can easily erupt into violence. But it is illegal for the underage person to walk away from that conflict and cool off, or walk away till the raging adult has cooled off. The damage has to be done before the law can intervene and it just doesn't when it's verbal or doesn't put them in the hospital.
As a teen I often went out late at night, two or three in the morning, walked a little way from the house to a nearby orchard and sat out watching the stars and composing poetry or just thinking about life. It was solitude and it was beautiful to be awake when the rest of the world slept, it was a chance to step away from all the pressures of the day and be alone with the universe. That's now become crime for anyone underage. I could not even choose to allow it if I were a parent, because the law would force me to stay out there with them -- when I am the last person they'd want to spend time with if what they need is time to be alone.
The legal demand that it MUST be the custodial parent puts an enormous burden on that parent at exactly the time in life when a teen would be turning to other adults -- friends of the family, other relatives. If a family has the old extended family structure with aunts and uncles in near walking distance and plenty of grandparents, none of those people can drive the kid home or take them out after hours, it must be the custodial parent -- the one that traditionally has the most conflicts with teens because that's today's pattern of culture.
A huge number of parents of well behaved, sane teens will suddenly start fault finding at any sign of separate personality on the part of the teen, setting unreasonable standards and Catch-22 situations to scapegoat the teen. I think some of that is that it's how parents deal with the emotional shock of letting go of their child, the relationship is so deep and important but by nature will change and that change is seen as the end of it. So it's breaking up nastily so the breakup hurts less. I think that may be an underlying reason the pattern perpetuates itself -- and I've seen it most often in families where the teen was studious, hardworking, ambitious in AP programs and studying round the clock to keep up with them on a schedule comparable to working two jobs, while maintaining household chores and trying to get along with parents who then find fault with every single thing, including anything short of A+ in all subjects -- or the way the teen does not have time for much family time after that and none at all for socializing with equals.
This is all going in a bad direction and it seems to get worse every year. I've got grandchildren and we may wind up homeschooling, ultimately the choice will be theirs. But it's going to take work to get around those laws and try to give them enough elbow room to have a happy, healthy childhood despite state interference.
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Robert A. Sloan, writer and artist
Ari Cat >^..^< Professional Muse
See my eHow Tutorials!
The quote was Jay Leno's, but I feel sort of appropriate with Christianity being attacked from all sides. I don't believe in organized religion per se.
But I did grow up the way the whole thing says and I did not go out and kill people and do other mean evil things just because both my parents had to work and were not always home to cater to my very whim or give me whatever I wanted. I went out and played with people not chatted with them on the computer, or sat glued to the tv set. Today it is different. The world would be a lot smaller without the computer and television, but we also weren't confronted with horror upon horror upon horror from around the world either. We took care of our own and solved our own problems and then took care of the rest of the world that we could take care of. At some point in time the rest of the world will have to stand up for themselves and take responsibility for their own lives. We did and we still are.
Your comment was very interesting to say the least. My grandmother was married to a Lakota Chief in South Dakota.
--
Klagt nicht, kämpft!
Rod.
Let me know when you are going to have the show so I can go to it. I find it interesting as well. Have always wanted to do a spiritual series of some sort. Thanks for the heads up!
Rod.
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