I Can't Believe We Made it!

**Kelsey1224** · 08-13-2003, 02:44 PM

I Can't Believe We Made It!

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's, probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids or locks 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 pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in
it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound,
personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and
were held back to repeat the same grade.
Horrors!

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or
broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem
solvers, and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it.

And you're one of them! Congratulations.

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before lawyers and government regulated our lives for our own good !!!

**Advertisement** · 08-13-2003 02:44 PM

**KitaKat** · 08-13-2003, 02:55 PM

Kelsey... thats a good one... thanx for sharing

***Willow*** · 08-13-2003, 03:04 PM

How the heck did we make it this far? lol

**Ladytiger** · 08-13-2003, 03:08 PM

The one that tears me up is the one about playing outside. Someone was always bugging my daughter, older men, when she played outside-I always had to be right there watching her.
I used to play outside for hours-and loved it. Then was then, this is now.
And hitchhiking?? Yep, I wonder how the heck did I make it??

**Princess4J** · 08-13-2003, 03:11 PM

I LOVE THAT

THANKS FOR SHARING.

**Unicornmom77** · 08-13-2003, 05:45 PM

I totally agree with this one!!!!!!!!!!! My kids BEGGED for bicycle helmets after a "safty officer" visited their school...THEY are $20 a peice!!!!!!!!!!!! We rode our bikes and never ever wore any "helmet"!! I am sorry but i totally disagree with the YOU MUST WEAR A HELMET. Its crap and just another way to make parents feel guilty when their child gets hurt and another way for the companies who make the things to make money!!!!!!!!!! OH MAN I have to stop now these things all make me mad!!!!!!! LOL I am an old fashioned parent I dont beleive in all of these things kids MUST have these days AND unlike alot of parents I SPANK my children. I WILL be darned if my kids grow up to do half of what some kids do...OHHHHH MY i have to stop now LOL! Could go on for hours but I have written my book! Also I in no way shape or form meant to offend anyone!! I am just a SAHM with an opinion!

**Tasha405** · 08-13-2003, 07:27 PM

Thats good! I remember playing outside all day as long as we were home when the street lights came on, sharing the bottle of pop with my friends and so on. Now all the kids want to do is play video games.

**okie** · 08-13-2003, 11:17 PM

We didn't have cordless phones,computers or play stations and it was a long long time before we got cable.We barely had a VCR.I remember playing outside all day and running around the neighborhood and none of ever got kidnapped but i gues those days are long gone.My grandmother owned a beauty salon and she had an old Coke machine and the guy would come by to fill it up every week and he would give us each a soda.I guess it was free because my grandparents never complained about us taking a soda from him.They were the old bottles you had to pop off the lid with a bottle opener.

**Tracy'sMom** · 08-14-2003, 08:43 AM

Woohoo those were the days. LOL!!!

**janelle** · 08-14-2003, 08:57 AM

Originally posted by Ladytiger
The one that tears me up is the one about playing outside. Someone was always bugging my daughter, older men, when she played outside-I always had to be right there watching her.
I used to play outside for hours-and loved it. Then was then, this is now.
And hitchhiking?? Yep, I wonder how the heck did I make it??

We had on the news here about a girl, around ten years old, playing on her swing set and a man watching her from back of the shed in her yard. He had his pants down and was too busy to see her mother walking up on him.

Thank God the mother saw him and chased him off. He worked at a Quik Trip around the corner. He was arrested but when you can't trust to have your child in their own back yard it's gettting really sick.

Who in the heck dropped the ball in our society to let all this crap go on?

Thread: I Can't Believe We Made it!

Thread Tools

Display