Divorce is easy.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

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

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks some of us took hitchhiking .
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Fruit Sweets and some fireworks to blow up frogs and lizards with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because.......WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no videogames at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape or DVD movies, no surround sound, no mobilephones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time.......no really!
We were given BB guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays.

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from atomic testing.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

Football had trials and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade'......

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 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 are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
PS -The big type is because your eyes are shot at your age

DIY Divorce
as a child of the fifties I loved
it. you have a great talent at writing. Brilliant!!

Hello Topaz, yup i was the 70's and had a complete blast.

I must say however that on this occasion my "writing" skills were limited to my ability to cut and paste!!!

I wish i could say that all those thoughts were penned by me, but alas, it is not so.

But lets keep that between you and i shall we?

Very nice thoughts, and a lot of truth in it (especially I think the part about this kind of upbringing generating innovators - totally agree with that)

So true! And now I feel so old

As a mother I am conscious that my children will never experience the carefree childhood I had. My head tells me that stranger-danger, internet grooming, youth knife culture and even the dangers of processed food are nothing more then scaremongering by the media...and yet my heart tells me I must protect my children at all costs, wrap them in cotton wool and god forbid they should leave my site...just in case.

"Summer holidays are not what they used to be. For British youngsters, the escapades of the Famous Five must appear like an extra-terrestrial experience. There is little adventure left in a world in which children are taught to fear the outdoors and their lives are continually subject to adult supervision."

Independent on Sunday, Jul 13, 2003

Sandradee,

you are only as old as your upbringing allows you to be.

The generation of kids who are not bruised and hurt will be weaker than ourselves from a physical point of view.

Cottonwool weakens them, mommycoddling is a curse, let your kids explore and learn.......that is what will make them as strong as us.............

IT IS NOT YOUR APTITUDE BUT YOUR ATTITUDE THAT DETERIME'S YOUR ALTITUDE!!!!!