We played in houses under construction climbing up and down ladders and catching birds trapped inside.
We road steer bareback and got a few good kicks to show for it.
We road the corn elevator to the top of the barn and jump down through the hay loft.
We skated on thin ice at local ponds.
We drove tractors and ploughed fields for pay.
We sat alone in cars while our parents ran errands or worked the fields.
We made explosives, rockets, used gun powder, and various motorized devices we rode on the road.
Most of my friends went hunting with real, loaded guns.
We went to school and the bus stop in -30 degree weather.
We were expected to be tough by our peers, the older sibling and our teachers.
Bullies were something to overcome to prove your mettle.
None of us wanted to be "that little kid" or "so and so's little brother" because that meant we wouldn't be allowed to do something fun, exciting and dangerous.
While there was always fear of injury the worse fear was that "so and so's big brother" who let us drive the car or whatever would A) get in trouble if we were hurt and B) take it out on us if we did. (Besides, falling down out of a tree you were climbing made you look just plain stupid - so safety was important - just not for the reasons today's "Modern Mom" might think.)
Yet in my 100 or so square mile world no kid died, no one was injured seriously, no one went to the hospital, and, for the most part, no one's big brother got in trouble. (Tangling with specific farm machinery - combines in particular - was a known killer and dangerous.)
We didn't want to be kids - being a kid was like being a third wheel - useless.
"Ha ha - little Eddy has to sit home and watch TV." - the death knell for having a social life.
Twenty years later my own children had various adventures - one heading to the park to play with older siblings and falling off the "big slide", that sort of thing. Everyone survived.
They were driven by the same motives as I was - to be grown up - to cross the "Ardmore" alone or, better yet, cross the "Ardmore" free on your own bicycle. (We lived in town...)
Today me, my wife, and my parents as well as all the other parents of kids I grew up with would be in jail for child abuse, child neglect and God knows how many other legal infractions to numerous to count had today's court system known about what we or our children did.
I can hear today's TV prosecutors shreiking the whole time about how irresponsible and reckless we all
From my own perspective, however, riding my bicycle on the road was an earned privilege - even at age 7. I understood what the dangers were - there were kids in my class with uncles, brothers and family members maimed or killed by farm machinery. (I guess that those parents should also have gone to jail for allowing those injuries to their children.) But advancing socially and being seen as independent out weighed those real dangers (in those days, for example, someone's big brother would pull up in their car along side you and give you a "push").
Yet where would I be today without those experiences?
Less able, less capable, unable to take risks, fearful, useless.
Let's contrast this with today's "child environment."
First off anyone who allows any sort of situation where a child might possibly be harmed to be discovered by a well meaning idiot is likely to face some form criminal prosecution.
God forbid you're child is seen hunting under age, riding their bicycle without a helmet, crossing the street alone at too young an age, playing the park, swinging, etc...
(Not to say there aren't irresponsible parents or that such parents should not be accountable.)
So what do children do instead today? Why sit idly in front of the TV (image above) watching Sponge Bob and eating snacks full of sugar and genetically engineered corn and oils like soybean that are so unhealthy they should be banned (see "Genetic Engineering - Its What's For Dinner").
Yet their "Prosecutor Mother's" applaud this because it allows them to run their busy lives without having to waste time watching their children. My dogs get better treatment than this - they are less supervised, better behaved and have more freedom.
(As kids our mothers were always busy - working, cooking, cleaning, doing whatever they did - but they were never too busy to keep an eye out for mischief (or worse learn about it second hand from a neighbor). All our childhood plots were foiled by some mom looking out the back window while doing dishes unbeknown to us...)
No, I think that sitting your child in front of the TV so that he or she becomes lazy, fat and a "slug" is the real child abuse - particularly when its done under the aegis of "I've got more important things to do".
What's more important than raising your child? Duh?
Do you think you're child does not know what you are doing to them?
Why do you think they are now prescribing them antidepressants?
Modern junk foods are poison and feeding them to kids while they sit idly is even worse.
Robbing them of "freedom to be children" prevents them from learning social skills, physical skills (climbing, jumping, running), and mental skills (how do I outsmart the bully, how do I get along with someone who does not like me).
This is like locking a child in a room to grow up isolated and alone - just like you see in movies like "Sybil" - isn't it?
You take away their recess at school - leaving them no outlet for stress. Children are not eggs that sit neatly in a one-size-fits-all carton - yet you "lop off" the parts that don't fit with antidepressants and therapy so they do fit irrespective of consequences to the psyche.
You believe you are making today's "childhood" a kinder, safer place.
But you are wrong.
Today adults take on bullies on behalf of the child - leaving the child to know that they cannot and will not ever over come a bully without help.
Where does that leave the child in later life? When the child has become an adult and must face a bully?
Without the skills needed to work out a difficult social situation, expecting others to do it, leaving them without a social clue.
A few weeks or months of a bullying or a lifetime of inept social ability - which is really better?
We had to stand for our principles against any sort of insurmountable obstacle - how else would you learn you limits or what you stood for?
Today the child cannot know his limits because he's not allowed to test them - its unsafe.
The shrieking, harpy like "do gooders" descend on anyone who they perceive "endangering a child" and attack.
So tell me, "do gooder"...
Why should I by my grandchild a bike? If they ride it and fall off it won't be an accident (because there are no longer any "accidents" with children - only irresponsible adults).
Why should I take them for a walk were a bug their are allergic too might sting them?
Why should I take them for an ice cream that might have peanuts or some other allergen in it?
Why should I allow them to play anywhere but where the toys and swings are all safe, government approved squishy plastic? After all, outside in the "wild" them might fall or get hurt.
Why should we throw a ball? Someone might get hurt and I'd have to be questioned by the stupid but well meaning medical staff and then go through months of insurance company bullshit over who should pay for the stitches - no thanks...
In fact, why should I or their parents let them grow up at all?
After all adulthood is really scary place, isn't it?
Wouldn't it be better if they just all stayed "cute, little, and cuddly?" Then they could just sit safely in front of the TV all day and do nothing. Why we could pump them full of drugs to make them quiet and submissive, feed them food to make them fat and sedentary, ....
Oh, wait!!!
We already have this (see "Women are Insane, Men are Stupid") where some woman complain the men are all useless and not worth dating (cute, cuddly, and fat)...
I guess they getting (got?) what they asked for.
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