Those born 1920-1969

[CCIP]

Yep, though it's also true a lot of kids these days (and in earlier days) are indeed sheltered from it.

Still, reminds me of sitting around smoking cigars with my best buddy recently... we're both both born in the 80s, I'm from Russia and he grew up in the hills of Tennessee - and we couldn't get over how similar our experiences of growing up doing stupid, dangerous, and completely amazing crap were so similar! ...and yet so strange to the people that surrounded us in our current lives as young working professionals in suburbia.

I wouldn't trade it for anything myself - I would say that one of the greatest things about my upbringing is that I got to both live "the streets" and learn the tough realities of city life, and at the same time I spend plenty of time living with relatives the countryside, knowing what it's like to live simple life with simple people, and take joy from connection with the land and with nature.

I think there's lots to be said for a frugal, tough upbringing. Try as you might, you can't learn that stuff in school.

[Lord_magerius]

I'm only 23 and that describes my childhood perfectly

[Oberon]

Yeah, I think the end date should be moved to 1985-7.

I took my cot apart most of the time anyway. Whoever thought that wing-nuts could not be undone by a toddler never met me...

[joea]

I ç%&ç# hate these stereotypical "everything was simpler in the good old days" emails. Just look, we have at least two guys here (Lord_magerius and CCIP) who fall outside the demographic and say the message applies to them. The email applies to me-albeit partly. Some of it is contradictory, claiming the last 50 years and the generation of kids raised like that saw an explosion of innovation and change part of which is stuff like computers, playstation and the internet that are decried. My Mom never smoked btw-she did drink wine as far as I know though.

The stuff about

"You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when You rode Your bikes, You had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, You would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags."

Utter tripe-I am sure lots of kids had accidents and died or were severely injured at the time-yet the letter puts them at the same level as harmless or really healthy stuff like playing outside, making mud pies which are fun things kids today miss out on.

My neice for example has a helmet, my sis was super obsessive about what she ate and drank when she was pregnant, my neice plays volleyball, dances ballet, loves Broadway musicals of the 40s and 50s and actually likes books. Her exposure to the internet and TV is limited and supervised, and the only computer game she plays regularly is "Cut the Rope" on my sister's iPad.

Originally Posted by joea

I ç%&ç# hate these stereotypical "everything was simpler in the good old days" emails. Just look, we have at least two guys here (Lord_magerius and CCIP) who fall outside the demographic and say the message applies to them. The email applies to me-albeit partly. Some of it is contradictory, claiming the last 50 years and the generation of kids raised like that saw an explosion of innovation and change part of which is stuff like computers, playstation and the internet that are decried. My Mom never smoked btw-she did drink wine as far as I know though.

The stuff about

"You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when You rode Your bikes, You had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, You would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags."

Utter tripe-I am sure lots of kids had accidents and died or were severely injured at the time-yet the letter puts them at the same level as harmless or really healthy stuff like playing outside, making mud pies which are fun things kids today miss out on.

My neice for example has a helmet, my sis was super obsessive about what she ate and drank when she was pregnant, my neice plays volleyball, dances ballet, loves Broadway musicals of the 40s and 50s and actually likes books. Her exposure to the internet and TV is limited and supervised, and the only computer game she plays regularly is "Cut the Rope" on my sister's iPad.

But that seems to be the exception now-a-days, I can even tell you from being in Highschool last year that the creativitey of alot of these kids has gone down. I know this because in the Highschool I attended (A 5A school with 2000+ Kids) there were ALOT who just didn't give two ----s about what they were doing and would rather go out and get drunk every night than do homework and prepare for their future (Personally I couldn't stand this, people never wanted to apply themselves). We had a few who were smart (because they applied themselves) , were outside all the time, good at sports, inventive and etc. But thats all on how the parents raised them I think.


I mean don't get me wrong I don't like being stereotyped either, but you can't help it when they're true, now-a-days kids threaten to call the police when mommy and daddy discipline them, throw tantrums when they wont get their way, have no motivation to do anything, and want nothing but a free ride. It brings one of my friends adopted brothers to mind, his mother adopted him because her son was friends with him (Courts ordered it because his foster parents were nuts) and even though she has handed him a silver platter (Takes him to school every day, drives him 30 miles 1 way at least 3 times a week JUST so he can go see his girlfriend, basically does whatever he wants. He's a slob and won't ever clean up after himself and rarely ever does any chores he's assigned) when she says no, then she becomes a horrible mother, he throws a temper tantrum starts screaming telling her how much of a bitch she is and how she treats him like ----. Then proceeds to storm off to his room slam the door and give her the silent treatment. He's in alternative school because he wouldn't have graduated on time at the rate he was going (Coming home right after school sleeping for 5 hours, waking up and staying up until two then going to school, not doing any homework because he didn't feel like it and sleeping in school). Sounds like he's 5 right? No, he's 17.