I was born in 1967.  I am a child of the 70s and 80s and very proud of that fact.  Some have told me I am too nostalgic and maybe I should look to the present and not to the past.  It is very hard to do when you have children of your own and you realize exactly how things have changed and it makes you wonder whether or not you are doing your children any good by raising them in this day and age.  Here are a few ways things have changed, read them, seriously think about them and see if you don’t feel the same way I do about some of what I am about to say:

1)  PLAYING

THEN:  We could go outside and play all day only coming in for snacks, drinks, meals and bed (as long as we told our parents where we were we only heard them call at these times).  We could play on playgrounds fully equipped with heavy swings, hot metal slides, rusty monkey bars, splintery wooden teeter totters, and wobbly merry go rounds.  We played with older kids and younger kids alike; we played together.  We played in free public paddling pools in the summer and skated on outdoor, bumpy, skating rinks in the winter with no worries because we were in groups.  We made up our own games with our own rules and everyone played along.

NOW:  Kids can go outside to play but they have to have constant supervision in case “something” happens.  Teeter totters, heavy wooden swings, metal slides and merry go rounds have either been removed or replaced with plastic “sturdier” ones so no one gets injured.  Kids can go to wading pools or skating rinks in groups but must be accompanied by an adult in case something happens.  Older kids are segregated from younger kids on the playground and vice versa for “safety reasons”.  Kids can make up their own games with their own rules but they must be age appropriate or nobody plays.

2)  SCHOOL

THEN:  We played games like tetherball, tag, red rover, dodge ball, etc knowing we could get hurt if we played rough and took our lumps if we did.  We competed AGAINST EACH OTHER during our sports day or track and field; sometimes we came home with ribbons sometimes we didn’t that was the luck of the draw.   We got grades in school and if they were bad we got in trouble at home.  All the kids played together at recess and lunch time every day.

NOW:  Games like tag, red rover, dodge ball, etc have had the rules changed so no one gets injured and to make it fair for those who may be slower and can’t run as fast.  The kids don’t compete against each other during sports day, they compete as teams so no one feels inadequate..  They get satisfactory or unsatisfactory for grades because it puts too much pressure on them and creates unneeded competitiion.  Kids are segregated at recess and lunch times because there can be injuries when they play together.

3)  PARENTS

THEN:  Parents were allowed to punish their children and no questions were asked.  We got yelled at when we did something bad.  They let us play outside without a lot of supervision.  They would bundle us up when it was -40 and send us outside because “a little fresh air was good for us.”  We were allowed to walk home after school, as young as four or five, because they trusted us..  They would leave older siblings with younger siblings with no second thoughts.

NOW:  Parents aren’t allowed to punish, yell, send their kids to play without supervision, send kids outside in cold weather, leave kids alone with siblings or let them go home on their own after school (if they are younger) without the possibility of being charged with or accused of abuse or neglect.  You may think I am exaggerating but I can think of at least one incident of accusation and/or charges that I have heard of for each of these.

These are only a few, as I stated in the beginning.  Everything was so much simpler then it is now.  We didn’t have as many issues, it seems.  Girls didn’t date at the age of 12, didn’t get pregnant that young, didn’t dress the way they do now, didn’t show as much disrespect.   Boys didn’t get girls pregnant at such young ages, they didn’t beat on people the way they do now, they didn’t show as much disrespect for others.  Parents didn’t get into fights at rinks over what they consider a bad call from a ref.  Teenagers weren’t getting shot as often as they are now, or so it seems. And the list simply goes on and on.

So, maybe I am nostalgic, maybe I am stuck in the 80s but maybe I have a good reason.  Wouldn’t you want to go back to that time in your life where there wasn’t so much drama and things didn’t seem so damn out of control?