9 February 2007

Snow Fun!!!


Well actually it's LOTS of fun!! Rather shocked this morning to find school STILL closed *frowns* apparently ice is a danger.
WHY does that poem about the sort of fun kids USED to have spring to mind Hmmm?

SO HOW DID WE SURVIVE? (WARNING WON'T MAKE SENSE TO UNDER-20s )
ACCORDING to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60s, 70s and early 80s probably shouldn't have survived because:
Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured, lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent spokey dokey's on our wheels.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat-belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.
We ate chips and bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it but we were never overweight because I we were always outside playing.
We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in theForThose morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark.
No one was able to reach us and no one minded.
We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all.
No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no internet chat rooms.
We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones but there were no lawsuits.
We had full-on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.
We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.
We walked to friends' homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school. We didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of seven and wore our coats by only the hood.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of ... they actually sided with the law.
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations!
Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers I and government regulated our lives, for our own good. For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

2 comments:

Karen said...

Pmsl, that is so true!!

Chrissie said...

Excellent! You have just described my childhood there.

But seriously...what's wrong with playing with pans??? My daughter was brought up playing with pans! Oh good grief, she's not going to die of some pan lurgy now is she?! Seriously...what have they said about pans???