So I'm sadistic. But those of you from the "older" crowd, you feel my pain, don't you? Remember...Micronauts? Shogun Warriors? The original Transformers? Those...now THOSE were toys. If you wanted to break them, you had to really try to put a hurtin' on them. And boy, did we try! Dropping them from buildings, tying firecrackers to them, standing across a room from each other and throwing the toys at each other, trying to make them crash mid-air...that was fun!
When we did we start being so afraid to let our kids get hurt? One of my favorite toys was Kabangers, aka Click-Clacks, aka Clackers. Take two ceramic balls, baseball sized...insert a thick rope between them. In the center of the rope, add a plastic handle. Package and give to your kids, "Have fun!" I gotta tell you, that thing drove me nuts - but I freakin' loved it! You held onto the handle, and basically tried to get keep the balls "clacking" against each other by flipping the handle up and down. If you missed...your got a nice, nasty bruise for your efforts.
Ahh, good times.
But. Things like this got me thinking about the past, and I remembered coming across a very nostalgic post a few years ago, showing the difference in mentality between THEN and NOW. It makes you wonder, why are we so overprotective of our kids - if we turned out relatively okay?
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 50's, 60's and 70's !!
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 to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, 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.
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 put 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 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!
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 our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
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