Hello all. Not too much to report this week. I had my good friend JW over last Saturday, and had a blast. Nursed a hangover on Sunday, and most of Monday. I find that nothing humbles you more than a really bad hangover. And was this one ever bad! Other than that, it was pretty much business as usual around here. Enough about me though, I have some rants and grievances to get off my chest.
Chain E-Mails
I know this is something that we can all relate with, and before I go on about this I want to say that I don't think they are all bad. In fact I enjoy quite a few of the funnier ones. It is the e-mails that are just selling superiority, or pretend to be quoting some celebrity (usually a comedian) that really grind my gears! So every time I receive a bad chain e-mail I am going to post it here along with my opinions on what is being said. Here is this week's chain e-mail (my comments are in italic):
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.
I'm not too sure what the author is trying to say here. Do they think women should still drink and smoke during pregnancy, or are they bragging that their mother did? Either way it's stupid!
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
As far as I know people still take aspirin, eat blue cheese dressing, and tuna from a can. Sure some of the people have health issues that may prevent it, but all of these products are still around for a reason. I also believe that people got tested for diabetes, it's just more widespread now. Probably from poor diet and not enough exercise, but that's a problem that we all have to deal with ourselves.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
Wow! Is the author complaining that people are trying to avoid SIDs! Also, lead-based paint is a known hazard and I don't think parents of past generations would have used it if they had known the potential health problems is could cause.
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.
Personally, I think childproof medicine bottles, doors, and cabinets are good ideas. I also think that wearing a helmet while bike riding is just good sense. And implying that hitchhiking is safe is just insanity!
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
And when people got into car accidents their children were either badly injured or killed. Thrown around like projectiles until they smashed through the window and landed in the way of oncoming traffic! Why on earth would anybody not want these added safety features after thinking about what could happen without them?
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
Even though I did this as a kid myself, it's probably not a good idea to continue this practice!
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We can still drink from the garden hose! All you need to do is buy a garden hose and attach it to a tap. Water bottles are more convenient though!
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
Did anyone actually think that they would die from sharing a pop with a friend?
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!
I still eat cupcakes sometimes! There is nothing wrong with the foods mentioned here, just as longs as they are in moderation. Maybe that's the problem with most people these day (not just kids). A LACK OF SELF CONTROL! Limit yourself to only one cupcake instead of 5 or 6, and everything will be fine. I am going to field the playing outside point in the next part.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.
Well thre is more of a fear that some person will try to attack or harm our children in some way if we let them out of our sight for too long. There is also a problem with the attitudes in neighborhoods these days. Most cities and towns have passed by-laws banning things like road hockey (and I live in Canada!), and parents are too afraid to let the kids go to the park, or pond, or field by themselves, and are either too busy or lazy to take them themselves. Also kids are being scheduled to death these days. What with things like gym-boree, and play-dates, and the like. I can drone on about this (yes, even longer than I already have), but I feel that I have made my point.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
Actually, I agree with this one! Although I do understand that a cell phone is good for safety reasons.
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.
I never in my life have built a go-cart, but I am confident in thinking that I would solve the brakes problem after running into the bushes only once!
We did not have Play stations, 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 computers, no Internet or chat rooms...... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
But it was the people of these generations that invented these great toys! Why now are they complaining?
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
How the hell do you sue a tree?! We have become a more litigious society though, and the people of these generations are 100% at fault for it! We are the governments and lawyers. Sad but true.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
Just for the record, I never willingly ate worms or mud, although we all still have there freedom to do so if we want to.
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.
This point is probably hard to sell to someone who lost an eye in a BB gun mishap. Perhaps the world would be a better place today if the parents of yesteryear didn't give us guns to play with like toys.
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'm pretty sure people still do this.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
Rep teams still have tryouts. Those who don't make the team can play in house league. I believe that everybody has a right to play organized sports regardless of their skill-set.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
I don't think the people in our jails would be a good influence on our children. Best to keep them out if you can. Still though discipline will be needed. Parents, THIS IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, not the justice systems.
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
There were also great risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors before these generations. Just look at Thomas Edison!
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!
Inventions like video games, surround sound, DVD's, CD's, Mp3s , and all the others ones that the author complained about!
If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS! (like being born during a specific period is something to be proud of!)
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
We did vote them in.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
But mostly stupid form the sounds of it.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
Nope, my parents told me that was dangerous.
Conclusion
E-mails like that one are just trying to make you feel superior. How can we say which way is better if we didn't experience both ways of growing up? Perhaps is is more accurate to say that we grew up in different times, with different activities. And most importantly, we enjoyed it! Perhaps judging today's children for the way they are growing up is wrong. Perhaps we should be looking at the people who are raising the children in an environment that produced these results and notice that they come from the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's. Perhaps these generations made better children than parents. Or maybe, everything is fine. Just different.
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