Several thoughts colliding in my mind made me think of what I’m posting today. The first thought is of all the news of toy recalls because of the dangers they pose to children. The second thought is an amusing/disturbing event this week. I’ll try to relate this as concisely as possible. A colleague stopped me in the hall to ask my age, to which I replied, “I’m 56.” She said that that’s what she thought, since she thought we were about the same age. She went on to explain that one of my students used me as an example in a project on Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development for her class. My student said that I was an example of someone in the “Integrity vs. Despair” stage of life - the eighth and final stage of life! She said that I was a grandfather in his mid-sixties. Yikes! I must look really old! Maybe I need a make-over….
Well, anyway, thinking about safety concerns for those in Erikson’s stage 1 - a stage I went through WAY back in the last millennium - and about the fact that as doddering as I am, I’ve somehow still survived reminded me of something I’ve received about other survivors like me.
Can You Believe We Survived!?
According to today’s over-zealous regulators, those of us who were kids in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and maybe even early 70s, probably shouldn’t have survived.
First, we survived being born to mothers who took aspirin, ate bleu cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We slept on our backs or our stomachs, whichever way was more comfortable. And we slept in back rooms or upstairs with the doors closed so no one would wake up.
We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts, or air bags. It was a sad rite of passage, when as a child, you were too tall to stand up in the back seat and look out!
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat, and the more the merrier!
We drank water from the tap and even the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one got sick or died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we had forgotten the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would also build our own skateboards from a board and an old pair of skates. We rode our homemade skateboards and our bicycles, and we skated - with no knee pads, no elbow pads, and no helmets. We learned that falling hurt, and we learned to avoid falls.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and often well into the evening after supper. No one was able to reach us during any of this time. No cell phones or pagers, just Mom yelling out the front door or calling our friend’s house in an emergency. And we were OK.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 256 channels on cable, DVD movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, Internet, or chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS! We went outside and found them!
We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut, some even broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents? They were what we called things that happened usually because of our own carelessness.
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks, stones, string, and cans, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with the disappointment, to get better at the game, or do something else.
Some students weren’t as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.
Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law!
Those generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, 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!
If you’re one of the kids described above and survived to read about it, CONGRATULATIONS!
***
Now I will say that we have learned somethings through the years, and my generation probably took some unnecessary risks because we just didn’t know better. But it is interesting to consider how out-of-proportion some of aspects of life have become. I guess it’s job security for those who know better than we do what’s best for us….
quotation…
“Our fears always pale when compared to the power of an omnipotent God.” - Jon Daulton
=^..^= =^..^=
Rob
If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t more people happy?
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on Nov 30th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Well, I have to say, I thought you were more my age-46! And while I don’t have grandkids yet, many of my friends do. So maybe someone should tell the student that his theory may be more “psycho” than “social.” ;0D
Rob adds:
Janet, bless you!
on Nov 30th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Rob adds:
To give some perspective, the following comment comes from a young man in his early forties with a delightful sense of humor. He’s one of my former high school students who was at the 25th reunion we attended this past summer. Thanks for your humorous input, Jeff!
Jeff writes:
Ok, I have two comments. First of all, I have been taken for someone in his sixties since I have been in my thirties! I married at the age of 28 and I died my hair back to it’s original color so people didn’t think I was an old man marrying a teenaged girl! (My wife was mistaken for a teenager well into her early 30’s!) Even recently, when my wife and I ran into someone she knew from work, she was asked if I were her father! This happened not once, but twice!!! So, don’t take it to heart, you get over it eventually. I barely remember all those times when someone asked for the “Older minister” at the church I was in, only to discover that they meant me and I was the youngest person on staff. Really, I barely remember it….maybe it’s because my memory is going!
Secondly, I know perfectly why I survived. I have a mother who makes the FDA, EPA, AMA, ADA, and any other protection/medical agency look like a group of light-weights! I am not saying my mother was over-protective, (but I am simply not saying it because that WOULD be hazardous to my health!) Friends and relatives soon learned that they should never accuse my mother of being overly protective because she would soon make it apparent that the real problem was that everyone else was “Under-protective” of their children.
It was a simple matter of deduction that “If a child can drown in a bath tub with only two inches of water in it, why on earth would we want a pool with six feet of water in the backyard?” It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? I felt so sorry for all my friends who had swimming pools in their backyards. It was obvious to me that not only did their parents not love them, they were trying to get rid of them!!!
I must say, I am thankful that my mother dedicated her life to my well-being. After all, she could have easily been the single most dedicated and driving force behind the movement to better everyone’s lives through better safety measures, but instead, she bestowed all her efforts and attention upon me! According to my shrink, I should turn out to be a well-adjusted adult by the time I actually reach my sixties!