Posted on 06/17/2015 4:35:26 AM PDT by HomerBohn
With all of the ridiculous new regulations, coddling, and societal mores that seem to be the norm these days, it’s a miracle those of us over 30 survived our childhoods.
Here’s the problem with all of this babying: it creates a society of weenies.
There won’t be more more rebels because this generation has been frightened into submission and apathy through a deliberately orchestrated culture of fear. No one will have faced adventure and lived to greatly embroider the story.
Kids are brainwashed – yes, brainwashed – into believing that the mere thought of a gun means you’re a psychotic killer waiting for a place to rampage.
They are terrified to do anything when they aren’t wrapped up with helmets, knee pads, wrist guards, and other protective gear.
Parents can’t let them go out and be independent or they’re charged with neglect and the children are taken away.
Woe betide any teen who uses a tool like a pocket knife, or heck, even a table knife to cut meat.
Lighting their own fire? Good grief, those parents must either not care of their child is disfigured by 3rd-degree burns over 90% of his body or they’re purposely nurturing a little arsonist.
Heaven forbid that a child describe another child as “black” or, for that matter, refer to others as girls or boys. No actual descriptors can be used for the fear of “offending” that person, and “offending” someone is incredibly high on the hierarchy of Things Never To Do.
“Free range parenting” is all but illegal and childhood is a completely different experience these days.
All of this babying creates incompetent, fearful adults.
Our children have been enveloped in this softly padded culture of fear, and it’s creating a society of people who are fearful, out of shape, overly cautious, and painfully politically correct. They are incredibly incompetent when they go out on their own because they’ve never actually done anything on their own.
When my oldest daughter came home after her first semester away at college, she told me how grateful she was to be an independent person. She described the scene in the dorm. “I had to show a bunch of them how to do laundry and they didn’t even know how to make a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese,” she said. Apparently they were in awe of her ability to cook actual food that did not originate in a pouch or box, her skills at changing a tire, her knack for making coffee using a French press instead of a coffee maker, and her ease at operating a washing machine and clothes dryer. She says that even though she thought I was being mean at the time I began making her do things for herself, she’s now glad that she possesses those skills. Hers was also the room that had everything needed to solve everyday problems: basic tools, first aid supplies, OTC medicine, and home remedies.
I was truly surprised when my daughter told me about the lack of life skills her friends have. I always thought maybe I was secretly lazy and that was the basis on my insistence that my girls be able to fend for themselves, but it honestly prepares them for life far better than if I was a hands-on mom that did absolutely everything for them. They need to realize that clothing does not get worn and then neatly reappear on a hanger in the closet, ready to be worn again. They need to understand that meals do not magically appear on the table, created by singing appliances a la Beauty and the Beast.
If the country is populated by a bunch of people who can’t even cook a box of macaroni and cheese when their stoves function at optimum efficiency, how on earth will they sustain themselves when they have to not only acquire their food, but must use off-grid methods to prepare it? How can someone who requires an instruction manual to operate a digital thermostat hope to keep warm when their home environment it controlled by wood they have collected and fires they have lit with it? How can someone who is afraid of getting dirty plant a garden and shovel manure?
Did you do any of these things and live to tell the tale?
While I did make my children wear bicycle helmets and never took them on the highway in the back of a pick-up, many of the things on this list were not just allowed, they were encouraged. Before someone pipes up with outrage (because they’re *cough* offended) I’m not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind and let your kids attempt to hang-glide off the roof with a sheet attached to a kite frame. (I’ve got a scar proving that makeshift hang-gliding is, in fact, a terrible idea). Common sense evolves, and I obviously don’t recommend that you purposely put your children in unsafe situations with a high risk of injury.
But, let them be kids. Let them explore and take reasonable risks. Let them learn to live life without fear.
Raise your hand if you survived a childhood in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that included one or more of the following, frowned-upon activities (raise both hands if you bear a scar proving your daredevil participation in these dare-devilish events):
1.Riding in the back of an open pick-up truck with a bunch of other kids
2.Leaving the house after breakfast and not returning until the streetlights came on, at which point, you raced home, ASAP so you didn’t get in trouble
3.Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the school cafeteria
4.Riding your bike without a helmet
5.Riding your bike with a buddy on the handlebars, and neither of you wearing helmets
6.Drinking water from the hose in the yard
7.Swimming in creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes (or what they now call *cough* “wild swimming“)
8.Climbing trees (One park cut the lower branches from a tree on the playground in case some stalwart child dared to climb them)
9.Having snowball fights (and accidentally hitting someone you shouldn’t)
10.Sledding without enough protective equipment to play a game in the NFL
11.Carrying a pocket knife to school (or having a fishing tackle box with sharp things on school property)
12.Camping
13.Throwing rocks at snakes in the river
14.Playing politically incorrect games like Cowboys and Indians
15.Playing Cops and Robbers with *gasp* toy guns 16.Pretending to shoot each other with sticks we imagined were guns
17.Shooting an actual gun or a bow (with *gasp* sharp arrows) at a can on a log, accompanied by our parents who gave us pointers to improve our aim. Heck, there was even a marksmanship club at my high school
18.Saying the words “gun” or “bang” or “pow pow” (there actually a freakin’CODE about “playing with invisible guns”)
19.Working for your pocket money well before your teen years
20.Taking that money to the store and buying as much penny candy as you could afford, then eating it in one sitting
21.Eating pop rocks candy and drinking soda, just to prove we were exempt from that urban legend that said our stomachs would explode e 22.Getting so dirty that your mom washed you off with the hose in the yard before letting you come into the house to have a shower
23.Writing lines for being a jerk at school, either on the board or on paper
24.Playing “dangerous” games like dodgeball, kickball, tag, whiffle ball, and red rover (The Health Department of New York issued a warning about the “significant risk of injury” from these games ) 25.Walking to school alone
Come on, be honest. Tell us what crazy stuff you did as a child.
Teach your children to be independent this summer.
We didn’t get trophies just for showing up. We were forced, yes, forced – to do actual work and no one called protective services. And we gained something from all of this.
Our independence.
Do you really think that children who are terrified by someone pointing his finger and saying “bang” are going to lead the revolution against tyranny? No, they will cower in their tiny apartments, hoping that if they behave well enough, they’ll continue to be fed.
Do you think our ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war were afraid to climb a tree or get dirty?
Those of us who grew up this way (and who raise our children to be fearless) are the resistance against a coddled, helmeted, non-offending society that aims for a dependant populace. In a country that was built on rugged self-reliance, we are now the minority.
Nurture the rebellion this summer. Boot them outside. Get your kids away from their TVs, laptops, and video games. Get sweaty and dirty. Do things that makes the wind blow through your hair. Go off in search of the best climbing tree you can find. Shoot guns. Learn to use a bow and arrow. Play outside all day long and catch fireflies after dark. Do things that the coddled world considers too dangerous and watch your children blossom.
Teach your kids what freedom feels like.
I remember at a very young age squishing an ant. As a harbinger of things to come, a little girl who saw my barbarous act pointed out that "it had a life and you took it away".
I'm sure she's a liberal now.
Behind our house before the woods and creek was a huge field with apple trees. Use to climb those trees, snatch an apple, and eat it. Pretty cool stuff. I also remember crawling over the big yellow construction machines. Never got one to turn on though.
Another thing the 25 rules did not mention was being able to take a basketball, go down to the local park or schoolyard, and play basketball with whoever showed up. No adult supervision. I suppose others have the same experience with baseball and such. Cool days indeed.
I loved playing with matches (source of rocket fuel). And I enjoyed mixing chemicals at random just to see what would happen. Somehow I talked my father into buying me a big jar of potassium chlorate (a major ingredient of fireworks). You can do neat things with that stuff.
Seat belts meh.My old man many years ago was fixing up the old family wagon.The rear seat was completely removed and the three of us kids simply stood in the back and held onto the front seats while waiving at other motorists and looking down at the road through the rust holes in the floor.
Ditto
No snakes in NYC
I got my rifle (.22LR Single shot bolt action) at the age of eight.
I was so proud I took it to school to show the Nuns. They all loved it. Even the Mother Superior wanted to see it.
Its a felony today.
bookmark
Great memories! I grew up in a small town called Castle Rock and when I was 12, three buddies and I went on a three day hike in search of a local missing kid. We followed a train track - and almost got ran down by a train while trying to take a shortcut across the trestle! We also waded through a pond and about got eaten alive by leeches.
Haven’t seen those guys since then. It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of our lives, like busboys in a restaurant!
I have played with lawn darts. And the rule was it was your own fault if you got pinned to the ground with a dart because you were supposed to be paying attention.
True about the basket ball. We’d play in our school clothes on the way home, sometimes in light snow.
Season changes and footballs or baseballs appeared. For some reason softball wasn’t part of our play.
Summers had trips to family farms. Ten years old and we’d spend the whole day wandering with an old single shot .22 and a box of cartridges. Adults had no problem with it. One of the farms had several pre-WWII cars abandoned because of rationing. Rusty hulks but really cool. One obviously once expensive in late thirties had a straight eight engine, can’t recall the make. Those we were warned not to climb on because of rusted metal was fairly fragile. Threats of tetanus shots sort of enforced that.
Yeah, leaving two kids tied up in a hole in the ground would have the FBI on our tails today. In our defense we had so many kids in the neighborhood somebody was always coning or going from the group and we really didn’t pay that much attention. This was circa 1954 and most of the families had 3 and more kids.
I usually rode on the back of our flat bed Studebaker when we went to town, usually once a month. Flat bed, no side boards.
Went to school, worked on the farm and had my first public job by the age of 12.
Got my first tickets at 13 in that same Studebaker.
Over weight and driving w/o license.
Had both tickets thrown out by the judge. Judge asked the State Trooper if he expected that wheat to get to the mill by itself.
Get to the mill, spend the day and night inching ahead one truck at a time.
Get home to pick up another load and head back to the mill.
Finest form of recreation was sitting on the back porch during a thunderstorm and watching the lightning.
Learned to love the smell of new cut hay, the smokey haze of oak fires curing the hung tobacco.
Being lulled to sleep by the bawling of 50 or 60 weaning calves.
All the things I did because I was needed to do it, my parents would get in serious trouble for today.
Now a days the neighbors would pitch a hissy fit listening to calves bawling for mama. They might even call the law.
I remember when the only boys in school the first month were the boys who lived in town.
Dang it, we were ALL free range kids back then.
Ray Bradbury predicted the current anti-imagination anti-free-spirit culture we have today. I think it was one of his short stories. I forget which one. I forget the detals but I remember the accurate depiction of the Uber Bureaucrat in total control of all thought and action using the excuse “for the children “.
PS- there are two books that I have been contemplating for grandchildren; The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls. Anyone actually read these? They sound like a good idea for rebelling against the nanny state.
Don’t forget the “Mad Scientist’s Club” books by Bertrand Brinley. They’re good stuff.
Worse cars - you think the cars are better looking today? Of course, they probably have better safety features, speed, and such, but the styles of the 50' and 60's cars are unmatched today.
More channels on the tube today and still nothing worth seeing.
There are still unreported rapes today as well as more women accusing someone of a rape that never happened.
Pedophiles aren't free ranging today? You're kidding, right?
The word queer was an insult, not a badge of honor. Not that this was the proper response, but any guy who seriously announced that he wanted to be homecoming queen would have the snot beaten out of him before the day was over with a reapplication of the beating every few days.
There were a lot of things that I did as kid which would be illegal today but were illegal then too. However, cops were a bit more reasonable back then and as long as you weren't hurting anyone or anything, they would generally give you a warning and send you on your way.
And I fell off the running board of our car while delivering newspapers.
Medical care wasn't that bad and it was truly affordable even a hospital stay. The doctor who delivered you could also do surgery and was probably your grandparents doctor as well.
Worse cars? Oh please! At age 16 I could diagnose fix any issue with my car. Today? Today it takes a trip to a shop with a computer and a $200 hit to hook it up and you never leave there without forking over about a $1000. Remember when Brake Rotors and Drums could be turned saving you from buying new ones at a ridiculous price? My older cars usually did not leave me sitting due to the wretched Crank Positioning Sensor which always seems to fail in most dangerous of circumstances. As a 5 year old unrestrained in the back seat of the family 55 Chevy I survived a high speed rear ending with a broken tooth. Todays cars I can just about total one out kicking them with my boots. Cars of the 1970's built in USA you could sit on the hoods. Cars built earlier than that you could stand on them.
Three channel TV? I'm 57. We didn't have a color TV until I was married in the early 1980's. We didn't get anything but poor reception of the three channels and we lived with it.
Perverts? Yeah they were around then some unreported and still today most are unreported. One thing many perverts greatly feared then that they don't now was vengeance done upon the perp from family members or neighborhood men that also went unreported and didn't bring about criminal charges for hurting dear perp victim.
The truth? My grandsons can not enjoy the nation of my youth. The worse thing we had in school was allowed smoking outside. Fist Fiughts didn't bring a police response nor a criminal record as they do today. Today a Fag Pervert can talk to the kids in school about how to enjoy Gay Sex but smoking is a criminal offense as is a pocket knife and no one better even mention GOD or read The Bible during school hours. Prayer will bring lawsuits except those to Ollie in the special room. Our school didn't begin classes without Devotion, Prayer, and Pledge being said. Many of our teachers in high school and principals were also Deacons, preachers, or church officers. I went to a public school BTW. My high school principal was an ordained minister who ran a safe orderly school. The Consolidated Mega High School built four years later was a Zoo and it's principal faced criminal charges.
My grandsons unlike the USA of my dad and my youth can't go camping at a lake alone as 14 year olds armed with a rifle. Either the Fag Mafia will get them or Children's Services will take them into custody so Butch and Dyke or Adam and Steve can have foster kids and be a real family. Yes indeed that's the evil agenda of the so called Child Protection racket.
I grew up in the 1960's up to the mid 1970's in the same nation values wise, laws wise, and common sense wise, that of which my father did in the 1930's and 40's. I could walk downtown in the evening even going past bars as a 12 year old. Because we lived in a rural area I rode into work with my dad who worked evenings and I went too see a movie or two then walked to where he worked about 8PM or so for a ride home when he got off from work at midnight. Today that same area I would not go without carrying. It's now a Homeless Haven known by every homeless person east of the Mississippi. It's a huge NPO with huge administration. IOW encouraging the homeless into the city. For that matter I don't much go anywhere these days without a weapon. Growing up our doors weren't locked on cars and on houses only if you went on vacation.
Today leaving your dog in a car windows partially down on a partly cloudy day will get you criminal charges because the Wanna Be Animal Prescient Nutjob looking in parked cars will call it in. I remember being told stay in the car while either Mom or Dad went inside a store. Today that warrants a DCS intervention or minimal a visit.
Anyone can screw up anyone's elses life for considerable time now simply by making an anonymous call to CPS or for that matter any government agency and telling them fabricated B.S. Worse kids in school are learning how to do this and calling in on other kids parents or their own if they don't get that new phone or game.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.