How Did We Survive Childhood

Washngton Times | December 29, 2003 | Wesley Pruden

[catonsville]

Here's what my Internet correspondent reminded me of (and if you see it on the Internet, it must be so):

"According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s probably shouldn't have survived. Our mothers put us in cribs covered with bright-colored lead-based paint.

"There were no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bicycles into traffic (bike paths were unheard of), we had no helmets. If we didn't feel like pumping a bike up the hills, we could always hitch a ride with strangers. There were no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was particularly special.

"We drank water from an old garden hose, not from a bottle. One bottle of bellywash could be shared with up to four friends, drinking from the bottle, and no one died. "We gorged on cakes, pies, candy, bread and butter, and anything we could find with lots of sugar in and on it, and we were never overweight because we were always running through the 'hood.

"We never heard of 'play dates,' and left home in the morning and played all day, and the only rule was to get home before the streetlights flickered on. No one could reach us because nobody had a cell phone. "We spent hours building go-carts from lumber and nails scrounged from neighbors' garages and raced them down the hill to discover only at the bottom of the intersection that we forgot the brakes. Running into the bushes was good enough.

"We fell out of trees, played with BB guns until we got a .22 rifle on our 12th birthday, fought "war" with dirt clods, broke bones, lost teeth, stepped on nails and caught fishhooks in noses. Nobody's daddy had a lawyer. "We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and most eyes survived intact (the worms didn't).

"We walked into our friends' houses whenever we felt like it. We chose up sides for ballgames, and if somebody didn't make the team, he learned to deal with it. There was nobody to counsel the losers (who would have felt insulted if there had been). "The generations that suffered these deprivations made the best of it, producing the explosion of innovation and ideas that transformed the world.

"Kind of makes you want to run through the house with a pair of scissors, doesn't it?"         

[Maigrey]

(sarcasm on)

Aiegh! You let your wife and child ride on a motorcycle without helmets? You're evil!

(/sarcasm off)

[stuartcr]

The American mother got lost because she had to go to work. I don't think feminism had as much to do with it as the economy. At least feminism helped make wages for the mothers better.

[stuartcr]

True, my dog and my garden are pretty much today, as they would have been 50 yrs ago.

[Dems_R_Losers]

True enough, but as P.J. O'Rourke so brilliantly wrote 10 years ago, we have become a society in thrall to the "safety Nazis." There's a big difference between putting seat belts in cars and removing all the diving boards from the swimming pools. I know teenagers who don't know how to dive because they have never been to a pool with a diving board! I was going off a high-dive when I was 7. We go to a pool on a military base in the summer, just so our kids can jump and dive off a real diving board. Our public pool has one, but kids under age 12 are not allowed on it. Ridiculous!

[Stone Mountain]

Sure, very amusing. But the facts are that a lot of children have died or suffered from lead poisoning, poisonings at home, or from bike accidents where kids weren't wearing helmets. Geez, in the "good old days," people on the average died before reaching their 60s. Go ahead and ignore these precautions, use lead-based paint for your baby's cribs and let them go out bike riding in the street without a helmet, and encourage them to accept rides with strangers, but I don't want to hear any complaining when it's you or your kid that ends up suffering needlessly. (Generic "you," not you personally...)

[BMiles2112]

The American mother got lost because she had to go to work. I don't think feminism had as much to do with it as the economy.
Most mothers do not NEED to go to work. It's a choice. People now are much better off, materially, now than they were 50 years ago. The economy has not forced mothers to go to work.

At least feminism helped make wages for the mothers better.
Please explain how feminism has done this.

[mikegi]

I'm fortunate enough to say to this day I have the best parents in the world.

Nope, I did. Mine weren't constantly hovering over me like so many parents I see these days and I'm eternally grateful. Parents helping their kids with homework??? Not a chance. Here's the extent of school assistance I got from my parents: "you're smart enough to get good grades in school and we expect you to get good grades". That's a far cry from today where my sister calls up asking me for help on her son's homework.

[AppyPappy]

Do you have a link to the article?

[MineralMan]

"True enough, but as P.J. O'Rourke so brilliantly wrote 10 years ago, we have become a society in thrall to the "safety Nazis." There's a big difference between putting seat belts in cars and removing all the diving boards from the swimming pools. I know teenagers who don't know how to dive because they have never been to a pool with a diving board! I was going off a high-dive when I was 7. We go to a pool on a military base in the summer, just so our kids can jump and dive off a real diving board. Our public pool has one, but kids under age 12 are not allowed on it. Ridiculous!"

There's no question that we have gone overboard in some ways. I'm just pointing out that all those nostalgic memories we all have should be tempered by thinking a moment about all those who weren't so lucky as we were, and who didn't survive.

As for diving boards, there's one at every public pool in my area, and the kids use them, too. The "cannonball" still survives. Motel pools don't usually have boards, but that's a liability issue with their insurance companies.

Yes, there's sometimes too much nannyism, but not every safety rule is bad. Someone posted a photo of three folks on a Harley, none with helmets. The photo included a mom holding a young child on the bike.

I'm an old motorcyclist and would never allow a passenger on my bike without a helmet. Never. I'd also never allow someone on the back holding a small child.

Sure, that's freedom, but it's also stupid as heck. Even for a ride around the block it's stupid. The worst bike accident I ever had happened at the corner nearest my house, when a Cadillac driven by an old man turned left up my street, cutting the corner, and ran smack dab into me.

Freedom's great! Stupidity isn't.

[stuartcr]

I personally believe that most do need to work. One of the things that feminism brought to the forefront was that wages for females were proportionately lower than for men.

[VOA]

bump

[MineralMan]

"Not every raises their kids like bubble-boys these days. Here's our 4 year-old daughter riding with Mom on our neighbor's Harley: "

Great! Your kid has freedom. It's still stupid. That photo is about the dumbest thing I've seen for a long time.

[mfulstone]

Eat Dirt

Only if you are breast fed. Then as you are weaned from your mother's antibodies, you create your own. It's a fact that parents who raise their kids in ultra-clean environments are setting them up for all kinds of medical problems later...

Kids are more likely to develop asthma in a clean home than a dirty one.

[Lady Jag]

PCs and PC are two huge reasons it's not like back then. We could say and do what we wanted, could make fools of ourselves and were seen as human instead of a source of litigious income.

With three channels on the TV and no desktop computers we were outdoors all the time and parents never worried because everyone in the neighborhood, with no fear of being sued, looked out for each other.

Besides the PCs, we played with asbestos, ate things that were never meant to be eaten and exposed ourselves to every potential allergen on earth. And we are grateful. :)

[Aggie Mama]

Actually, I would say that it's 2 things that have "forced" moms to go to work: 1) Our oppressive taxes that take out 50% of our family income and 2) Lack of respect for the job that SAHM's do.

As a SAH myself, and I can't tell you how many times women have told me, "Oh, I could never do what you do. I'd be so bored." et al...... I've even seen those type of comments given by men on FR. "Oh, your job is soooo easy."

If the SAHM's role in the family and society isn't given value, if it really is okay to have babies and toddlers go to daycare, then why should a mom SAH?

[Stone Mountain]

I'm an old motorcyclist and would never allow a passenger on my bike without a helmet. Never. I'd also never allow someone on the back holding a small child. Sure, that's freedom, but it's also stupid as heck.

I completely agree. That picture is somewhat scary to me. And it's not like the child has an informed choice as to his safety options - the child has to rely on the parents to look out for him.

When I was riding a bike, I occasionally (rarely) rode without a helmet, but I never gave anyone a ride without one.

[Search4Truth]

History will remember feminism as that dark time when it was legal to massacre the unborn.

[stuartcr]

Unfortunately, that massacre has been going on far longer than feminism has been around.

[BMiles2112]

I personally believe that most do need to work.
Why? Don't you agree that we are materially better off today than at any time in the past?

One of the things that feminism brought to the forefront was that wages for females were proportionately lower than for men.
But women still make significantly less than men for the same job, and I don't think it's changed much over the years, you just hear complaining about it more. Regardless, I don't see why this is a problem. A certain wage level is not owed to anyone. The wage an employee receives is an AGREEMENT between the employer and employee. No one is forced to take a job at a wage they deem insufficient. There are wage disparities between hundreds of different groups, and it's reality. It's not a problem that needs "fixing".

[MotleyGirl70]

We have much in common. : )