Kid raised in the 40's 50's 60's and 70's

Re: Kid raised in the 40's 50's 60's and 70's
I did a little editing because I think the other items are not much different today. The following items sound like they were written by a lobbyist for the various corporations.

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
Today I heard on the news that women who smoke a pack a day during pregnancy are 70% more likely to give birth to babies with webbed fingers and toes. Fetal alcohol syndrome has been a problem ever since alcohol was invented.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

The history of the lead industry and their lies about the dangers of their product are legendary. To this day children are mentally impaired by being exposed to lead, mostly in poor neighborhoods were it is too expensive to remove.The lead industry knew of the dangers almost 100 years before the public had a clue

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Many children died before car seats and seat belts became mandatory. Many got sick or died when they got a hold of medicines left within their reach. Laws for these things came about because bad things happened. The same goes for hitchhiking - it was never safe. The difference was pre-1970 rape was so shameful women often didn't admit it happened

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
I had a neighbor whose son loved to shoot song birds and local cats with BB's. -today he probably owns a Tazor. Guns have their place in our society, but they should not be sold as a deadly toy

Sorry Chai, I don't mean to rain on your parade and I know I'm being a one of those cry baby Liberals that give Conservatives wet dreams, but I just don't think corporations give a damn about the damage they do. Sometimes the public needs protection from the powers of greed. It's not something I want to debate, I just wanted to express my feelings (and I did). By the way, this has been floating around even before the days of email. I got it as part of a chain letter @ 20 years ago

Okay, you have my attention. Truely, MRS Tea, I'm much more likely to look at threads you started, or posted in last, than many others.

thanks roger...I really appreciate that. Ah, validation.

no need to apoligize greenwitch, I don't want kids eating paint chips or being born to moms that smoke.

Actually, the part about nintendos vs. playing outside all day long is overstated too. we all need a balance.

what more struck me about this was the stuff about improving entertainment (building a go cart and later discovering you need brakes)

I was talking to someone the other day, and she and I began to recall war stories. I remembered my brothers collecting mercury from the connections of the railway bridge that was outside my house, then coming in and showing it to me.
I remember sitting at the kitchen table, pushing the little mercury balls around with my fingers, you know, making them form one larger ball, then squashing them.
My brothers casually (REALLY CASUALLY) mentioned to me "don't eat that"

Of course the idea hadn't occured to me until they said that, and I didn't eat any. But I was sure tempted.
They weren't being evil, we were all just doing stuff.

There's lots of other stuff I didn't tell them I did as a kid either, like wading up paper and setting them on fire in the bathroom sink, or getting up at two am and leaning backwards out my window horizontally, holding on to the window frame for support, so I could look at the stars.

Smart? No.
Part of lifes experiences? You bet.

I just feel kinda sorry for kids who have "play dates" arranged between their soccer practice and japanese lesson.

Quite a while back, I had flaired up a conversation with a woman at the gym.

She was trying to finish her workout really quickly (instead of 140 beats per minutes she was pushing to 180 to train her heart more quickly I guess), because she had to move onto the next of a dozen things her child was scheduled for before the kid was allowed to go to sleep or something.

As she listed all the crap the kid had to do today, for the rest of the week, next month, I started feeling kinda panicy (I was having panic attacks then) I thought to myself "Christ Almighty - what is she doing to this poor kid?"

What I asked her though was "What about downtime?"

"What do you mean?"

Downtime, you know, laying on the grass in the back yard, staring at the clouds and and seeing all kinds of cool stuff. Seeing how far you can kick an empty soda can. Chasing the dog. Listening to the grass grow.

I actually said a diluted version of that. Her response, really, no sh!t "oh, we schedule some down time in"

In other words, not everything out there is gonna kill ya.

And no one can protect another from everything.

That's the feeling I was trying for anyway.