My entire childhood condensed and visualized for your viewing pleasure.
I did every one of those things as a kid except riding a bike off of a ramp. I rode a bike into a swimming pool, we did not have a bike ramp.
Kid jumping the ramp on the bike doesn’t know how to do it.
It’s gonna be an ow!
Cliff...nope.
Fireworks...nope.
Drive a car...maybe,going very slowly in a deserted field or parking lot.
Gun...nope
The other stuff...OK.
I was working out in the yard last week, very hot. I took a drink from the garden hose, after I let it run awhile. It tasted good!
Ride a bike without a helmet!
23 for 23 plus we live in Kentucky and home school.
Not all children live near enough to the schools they attend, to be able to walk or bike to them.
And some of these things aren't things that all kids can or should do, because of where they live.
OTOH...some of the things should be done by kids today and yet, they have been taken away.
Bailing out of swings?
In other words, just do all the stuff that we did when we were kids.
It was a little challenging to go sledding in California, where we didn’t have snow. But I did many of those activities.
One I remember the most is tree climbing. Trees were challenges to me—I never saw a tree that I didn’t want to try to climb. It was difficult when they didn’t have branches within reach. I would climb up to the point where I could feel the tree was not able to support my weight.
I would always carry a pocket knife—no doubt I would have been suspended from school in today’s paranoid climate.
I was just thinking—for many of the things I enjoyed as a child, in this day and age, someone would have branded me as “transgender” and tried to pigeonhole me into pretending that I actually was a boy. Egads.
I did ALL of that (except wear “high waters” when walking to school)
If my daughter were to let her kids do all the stuff I did before I was 12 neighbors would call the police and my son’s house would be covered up with social workers and government child stealers.
I don’t think Gen-X and Millennial helicopter parents will be taking the bubble wrap off their little precious cargo anytime soon.
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"Riamh nár dhruid ó sbairn lann!" |
Life’s little conquests so many snowflakes will never know and may be lost to the ages.
Good heavens, I did all that and survived. Resources depending, I’d add: keep livestock, ride a horse out into the country, use a hatchet safely, build a snow fort, mix and pour concrete, paint a wall, change a tire, drive a tractor. Scariest of all: learn freedom and pay for a few mistakes.
I got to do ALL that stuff and SCUBA diving too. I can still do most of it, it’s just a lot harder now, 50-55 years later.
When did America turn into Milquetoast Nation?