I know I've lamented this before, but I feel the need for reiteration. So bear with me. ;-)
I think my parents were SuperParents. Because I survived to adulthood. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. Honestly, I don't know how any of us are alive today. I remember being FIVE years old, and walking across a busy street from our apartment complex, to get candy at the convenience store, ALL BY MYSELF. There was no worry of pedophiles or sex offenders or kidnappers to take me off somewhere. I'm sure they existed, but not in "our" part of the neighborhood. ;-) I remember riding around in cars without a seatbelt (they didn't even have carseats!) and sometimes, I would perch on the console in the front seat between my parents (again, sans seatbelt) and ride that way. Or when we'd go on road trips my siblings and I would lie down with blankets in the back of the car, and sleep that way. And oh my gosh, we didn't die.
And being outside, ah, it was awesome. Playing outside in trees or in makeshift forts was WONDERFUL. We were outside more than we were inside. And we LIKED being outside. During summer, I would leave the house in the morning, and not come back unless A) I was hungry or B) it was dark. No cell phones, no way of "checking in." I'd just be gone. My mom's way of getting a hold of me was standing on the back porch and shouting my name. If I heard her, good, if not, I'd always come home later and she'd tell me what she needed then.
During school time, if it was my birthday, Mom would bring in homemade cupcakes. All the moms did. There were no wheat, gluten, milk or peanut allergies. And I would play on unsafe playgrounds. Remember those tallllll metal ladders and impossibly high narrow metal slides that you could probably die if you fell off of, but we climbed up and slid down about 36947 times without incident?
We wore bell bottoms and home-sewn clothes, and no one cared. We didn't have computers or Internet or Cell phones or video games or caller ID, when the phone rang, you didn't know who it was, you just answered it and found out.
Times were easier, too. People were able to fly the American Flag and say "Merry Christmas" without fearing a lawsuit. And people actually TALKED to each other. They couldn't hide behind texting and email and use them as social crutches. We weren't so horribly afraid of offending everyone and everything. Life was...simpler.
Can we go back? Certainly there are things about my childhood that I shake my head at, but I'd like to be able to simplify, sometimes. Unplug, unwire, and simply be a family without all the extraneous crap. And I still maintain my parents were SuperParents, because I'm not dead or maimed. Despite the odds stacked against me, and the unsafe (by today's standards) way I was raised, I turned out OK.
*sigh*
I think my parents were SuperParents. Because I survived to adulthood. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. Honestly, I don't know how any of us are alive today. I remember being FIVE years old, and walking across a busy street from our apartment complex, to get candy at the convenience store, ALL BY MYSELF. There was no worry of pedophiles or sex offenders or kidnappers to take me off somewhere. I'm sure they existed, but not in "our" part of the neighborhood. ;-) I remember riding around in cars without a seatbelt (they didn't even have carseats!) and sometimes, I would perch on the console in the front seat between my parents (again, sans seatbelt) and ride that way. Or when we'd go on road trips my siblings and I would lie down with blankets in the back of the car, and sleep that way. And oh my gosh, we didn't die.
And being outside, ah, it was awesome. Playing outside in trees or in makeshift forts was WONDERFUL. We were outside more than we were inside. And we LIKED being outside. During summer, I would leave the house in the morning, and not come back unless A) I was hungry or B) it was dark. No cell phones, no way of "checking in." I'd just be gone. My mom's way of getting a hold of me was standing on the back porch and shouting my name. If I heard her, good, if not, I'd always come home later and she'd tell me what she needed then.
During school time, if it was my birthday, Mom would bring in homemade cupcakes. All the moms did. There were no wheat, gluten, milk or peanut allergies. And I would play on unsafe playgrounds. Remember those tallllll metal ladders and impossibly high narrow metal slides that you could probably die if you fell off of, but we climbed up and slid down about 36947 times without incident?
We wore bell bottoms and home-sewn clothes, and no one cared. We didn't have computers or Internet or Cell phones or video games or caller ID, when the phone rang, you didn't know who it was, you just answered it and found out.
Times were easier, too. People were able to fly the American Flag and say "Merry Christmas" without fearing a lawsuit. And people actually TALKED to each other. They couldn't hide behind texting and email and use them as social crutches. We weren't so horribly afraid of offending everyone and everything. Life was...simpler.
Can we go back? Certainly there are things about my childhood that I shake my head at, but I'd like to be able to simplify, sometimes. Unplug, unwire, and simply be a family without all the extraneous crap. And I still maintain my parents were SuperParents, because I'm not dead or maimed. Despite the odds stacked against me, and the unsafe (by today's standards) way I was raised, I turned out OK.
*sigh*
3 comments:
YES!!!! That's EXACTLY how I was raised and I too am still alive. As much as I LOVE today's technology, our growing up times were much more simple. It's too bad our kids just have our stories and can't live like that today.
AMEN, Sister. Today we have sex everywhere too. It's so bad, now.
Janey
We were the last generation to have an actual childhood, since children were taken out of the sweatshops and allowed to have childhoods.
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