- All we needed to have fun was someone else to play with. And pillows, if we had pillows oh the things that we could build! Forts with the big pillows from the couch. A soft place to land with small pillows.
- If 2 or more of us were together then it was time for a show! We would perform to songs like as “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” and “Bear Necessities”. J wouldn’t be caught dead dancing to them and S asked me to remove all the ‘baby’ songs from his I Pad… so sad.
- I don’t remember being hovered over by a parent or a nanny when I was a child. The reason I know that they weren’t hovering is because I have memories of things we got up to that I know for sure if they would have stopped us doing! I also hope my children are as lucky as we were when they do things as stupid as the things we did.
- Hide and Seek was a game played around my grandmothers farm, not our little living room.
- Our toy box was a huge cardboard box filled with old dresses and props.
- We used to watch movies like The Railway Children and The Never Ending Story. And cartoons like My Little Pony and The Smurfs.
- The words “stupid” “shut up” and “idiot” were considered swear words. And still are, in my house at least, but not in many of the new cartoons. They seem to think “Stupid head” and “Butt face” are totally acceptable ways of addressing others.
- Electronics were big and bulky and not made to be carried in the pocket. Therefore we had conversations with our friends and played actual games with them.
- Sleepovers did not necessarily mean there were enough beds to sleep over on. Any soft surface was good enough to be a bed. Also, there was no such thing as too many kids in one bedroom.
- Internet was only accessible with a dial up connection available only in the family living room.
We had more fun when we were kids. Or different kinds of fun that involved very big spaces and lots of running and climbing (and falling and hurting ourselves). We were less sheltered and probably a lot happier. There are a lot of things from our childhood that we still maintain for our children but it seems that the nannies have multiplied and the “no no’s” have increased on the small stuff.
Children are not left to sort out their problems or resolve their conflicts as an adult steps in at every opportunity to fix things. We have padded, coddled and protected our children to the point of almost uselessness. Lets not. Ok, I’m more beat up then they are and had more accidents and bad choices but I survived and so will they. I got used by ‘friends’ and lied to and manipulated and then I learned. If we step in at every opportunity we better be willing to do the same through college and the rest of their adult lives.
Yeah… No… I do not intend to sit there and resolve work issues for my children or debate marital matters between them and their significant others or raise their children for them or run their houses for them. I’m on the clock for the next 18 years till the smallest graduates and starts his higher learning and then I am a spectator. Ever present and definitely opinionated but NEVER EVER playing, coaching or judging the game.
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Ya Allaaaah !! So ture ,,