"Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice."
- Unknown

"Boy are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails."
- Unknown

October 5th, 2002

I had gotten this one recently from an old friend of mine, Chezzy. I don't think she wrote it but she submitted it to me just the same. You can file this one under the category of legal stupidies and overcautious parents.

It's a pet peeve of mine but I digress.

Chezzie, who is a year older than I am, asks the same question that both my wife and I ask as well as most childless parents and single people do and have made it to our level of wisdom.

How did we survive?

Chezzie's submission is in purple.

So very true.....

If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's.

Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have.

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.

Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)

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

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 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.

No cell phones. Unthinkable. We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugared soda, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, PC's, Internet chat rooms. We had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

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. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!


That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem solvers.

We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!

And you're one of them.

Congratulations.

And isn't that just the point. How are kids going to learn to deal with the hardships that come later in life? Life comes with bruises. Anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell you something.

Independence is something that is learned, not something you hope for. Kids are made of flesh and bones, not bone china. Let them be kids.

The one thing that our generation has that I think this next one will never have is an ability to roll with the punches and learn to deal with things that aren't always pleasant. But that is the risk you have to take because the reward is worth all of the cuts and scrapes.

Life is painful.

Life is beautiful.

Deal with it.