:-)

I was born in the early 40's ('42). Growing up my parents didn't see me all day, I went fishing, swimming, camping, tobogganing, and walked 10 miles in the snow to and from school every day, uphill both ways, etc. You know the story. When I was around the house (behind the store) I stocked shelves at my parents grocery store, or made sausage on my dad's big grinder. He told me not to put my hand in the that big orifice where the meat went in. Yah, things were different. My 3 kids all pretty much had daylight freedom, one perhaps a little too much, but he straightened out. Now my grandkids (already young adults) too grew up with complete daylight freedom. They have always been in touch with nature, had their own guns, and real ammo. The community where they lived growing up everyone played some game where they hunted and shot each other with paintball guns (face shields were mandatory). Some of the bigger "kids" are even volunteer fire fighters and about half of them are 1st responder aid workers working for the county. My eldest son at 47 and all his friends still play these games even now with the kids off to college. There are always some newer kids to indoctrinate. It seems where they live everyone has a great time all the time. Even my wife and I are surprised that no one ever locks their doors, and no one ever knocks. They just show up, just let themselves in, and help themselves to lunch, dinner, or whatever and they all do this anytime. More often they show up with something to share, some wild meat they just killed, or some fresh fish out of the lake, or even a case of beer usually homemade. What makes this community work is that when some "hippy" shows up in the community and murders someone's cow just to get a nice roast for themselves, that intruder for some weird reason usually ends up beating themselves up or possibly even committing suicide. In any case they usually do not come back. It's really a strange phenomenon. Everyone knows the sheriff and he even joins in when he's not on duty.

I think this change in freedom and fear against growing up free is more recent than we think. Middle America seems less susceptible to the idiocy that is going on nearer the big cities and the coasts. Maybe it's got to do with larger populations, that's where most of the problems seem to start and linger. Everyone wants to tell everyone else how to live.

I have no objective evidence to quote but I think that risk aversion of women makes them a target for the propaganda of fear that is permeating current society. I do not think that the 'war on terror' would have been effective on people in the first half of the 20th century, and I think that women have been a primary target.

As an adult you would have to have survived an economic depression and seeing Hitler and the Allies destroy much of Europe. The current generation of young parents may have to endure the crucible that you were spared.
I do think that children need to be able to depend on one parent to be there for them all the time. The creature comforts and conveniences (that many two earner families think are necessities requiring both to work) are not worth the price being paid. The generation before you also wasn't subjected to as many years of public school propaganda (in most cases.) Instead many of them learned skills that helped the family and gave them experience and humility that may of us in later generations have missed.

Sounds like your grandchildren should counsel their parents to stop watching so much network news and other tv that is designed to increase their fear of real life.

I agree that on the average females tend to be more risk averse. Females have increased participation in work outside the home, but men have a least slightly increased participation in caring for children. So I would expect to see more male influence in the home and more female influence on work outside the home. This makes me think that gender equality is not directly responsible for increased caution in the home.

Mercurochrome was the desired medication because it didn't sting. But because it didn't hurt, my mom was convinced that it wasn't as effective. She was probably right.

remember merthiolate? . bactine? . mercurochrome?
there were occasions when multiple injuries made
me look pretty messed up! -- j
.

remember the match gun? . made of a clothespin,
the thing would light and fire a strike-anywhere kitchen
match about 10 feet. . we used them in the boy scouts
to "attack" one anothers' campsites. . before we
cut tents down as the final surge. -- j
.

yes it is, dammit! -- j
.

well said Jan!!! . {risk averse, whispered} -- j
.

and we drove our go-carts In The Road, with our
tennis shoes the only brakes! . and we went camping
and ate the beef which fell Into The Fire -- the potato,
too! . and we rode city busses By Ourselves to get
to Junior High School, both ways! . we made it!!! -- j
.

All those well-meaning pseudo-parents, wanting to protect kids from negligent parents.

Wasn't this posted before? Maybe I saw it somewhere else.

Overprotective.

Let's face it - somehow those of us born in the 40's missed some critical factor in raising our children so that they in turn have done a poor job with our grandchildren.

I'm not sure what I should have done differently, but I wish I could have instilled the same values in my children that my parents taught me. I thought I was raising them as I was raised.

Could the difference be that my mother never worked outside the home? With all our modern luxury's it seems to take two earners per household to keep up. Whatever the difference, it is not working out for the better. :-(

Hear! Hear!

Your daughter and son-in-law, to answer
your question.

Because of back yard tackle football with no pads and helmets, today 50 years later I have a neck fused along 4 vertebrae. But, I would have it no other way if it meant that happy go lucky existence had to be traded for the nanny state.

I am so glad I lived! Really lived! Hey - I noticed there was only a flash pic of a boy holding a rifle. We all had guns and play...wait for it...Cowboys and Indians! Cap guns, pop guns, water guns, totally fake guns...how about the Daisy rifle? Amazing...and there were no highly publicized school shootings.

I have to shake my head today...I was in the waiting room at a doc's office listening to the conversation of two young boys - around 8 or 9. They were responding to a newscast (yeah, remember when there were no TVs in a waiting room?) about a shooting.

"Guns are really bad" said one of the boys to the other. The other agreed wholeheartedly.

I looked at the 1st person shooter game he was playing on his iPad and tried to understand the logic and where the logic came from - parents, schools, peers?

I agree with most of what you say. I disagree about the women's rights movement - but only in part. I think that it is not 'girls feeling that they have to do the same thing as the boys unless they have an excuse' but I DO think that the feminist movement put in increased power a group of people (women) who were more risk adverse (culturally? genetically?) and that a lot of these new social directions are the result of that.

If that is the case, and we can keep these risk adverse tendencies from being enshrined in stone, then the situation may resolve itself as more women take and survive more risks.

Jan

We used to play touch-tackle football with no pads and no helmets.
We used to have nail gun fights while riding our bikes.
One guy broke his arm once but that was the only serious injury.

Today's moms would be horrified at the games of Red Rover we played. We had no grassy playing field. The gang stood on one side of the street and tried to make it to the other side without getting caught, which involved "any way you can." There were grabs, tackles, and whatever could stop you. Quite often a face or two would become very familiar with street concrete. We all survived and iodine was the word of the day. Ouch!

Using my daughter as an example, she is so overprotective I think my grandchildren are ununfortunate. My husband and I wanted to give my 2 grandsons concert tickets to a local theater. They're 12 and 10. My daughter and son in law had a fit over it. These are well behaved good kids and we would be outside the theater when the concert was going on.

When I was that age I was going to the movies with friends and so was my daughter. She was babysitting and responsible for others. It's not a rock concert I'm sending the boys to.

What's wrong with this picture?

This is why I call myself "old dino" from time to time. The free world where I came from is now extinct.

The world isn't nearly as dangerous as the fedgov wants us to believe... except for the near infinite danger posed to liberty by the fedgov itself.