Are our grandkids getting too sissified?

[Sigarms]

I only have one thing to say about that
View attachment 542467

Absolutely correct:thumbsup:

I had a normal childhood, other than growing up an air force brat who thought it was cool anything to be able to watch fighter jets taking off and landing and doing touch and go's.

My parents loved me, didn't do too bad of a job raising me IMO, that said, I can remember doing some things with my dad that I would never do with my own children now.

I don't consider myself "over protective" raising my boys, that said, we know a lot more about the world and the people in it than we did 40 years ago. We're also very aware of the accidents that can happen nowadays IMO if proper guideance isn't given with or without supervision.

I remember in high school running cross country doing 15 miles a day over the weekends running the back roads by myself. My one boy just got on track, and he's only 13, and we're debating when he will be old enough to run on our own backroads now on his own. Not that I don't trust him, just some of the idiots driving 60MPH on a 30MPH back road.

 

[MossRoad]

My youngest daughter was in cross-country. On days she didn't run with the team, I'd ride a bike with her on her runs. No way would I let a high school girl run the roads alone around here.

 

[goeduck]

I never ate in a restaurant until I was in about 7th grade. We would take lunch to school in a brown paper bag and have to return the bag home to be reused the next day. The bag would only be thrown out after it was too ripped up to hold lunch. Even then I think it was burned in the wood stove to start a fire. If I couldn’t eat everything the food had to be brought home to feed the animals. NO throwing out of food unless it was rotten. Those were the days. Even to this day I can’t stand thowing out food and when I do it gets composted.

Oh and the tractors never had good batteries. We always had to kick start them (gas).

 

[Sigarms]

My youngest daughter was in cross-country. On days she didn't run with the team, I'd ride a bike with her on her runs. No way would I let a high school girl run the roads alone around here.

Yeah, and what we're doing now is let our boy run while my wife and I walk. He seems to take the curves pretty well watching out for cars, and we let him out of our sight for 10 minutes or so, but he's slowly getting his independence. Just wondering when we'll just let him go out on his own without us walking the same road.

The reality is I've gone over with him what he should do if anyone stops their car in a odd place with him running by it on the road. The added reality is a child abduction is something that never crossed my mind when I was his age.

 

[Doofy]

Our school never had a hot lunch program until after I graduated. In 1968 the Fed's sent peanut butter, pilot bread(crackers) and honey. The following year they added multivitamins and cheddar cheese. WooHoo!!! That was good stuff! I would take my bag lunch to school (usually a ham or baloney sandwich) and I'd trade for moose or smoked salmon. Good memories.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm 57 and we were warned of it when I was a kid. There were, are, and always will be, pedophiles preying on young people.

 

[cruzenmike]

I think that there are many factors at play today that have caused our children to evolve into "different" beings that what we were as both kids and as adults. For example, our children are growing up in an age of technology; one that provides them with all of the information and entertainment that they need or want without them having to leave the house. I grew up in the late 80's and 90's and remember having absolutely NOTHING to entertain myself in the house, so I had no choice but to go outside and run, jump, skip, whatever to keep myself occupied. We played roller hockey in the street, all kinds of tag-like games into the late evenings on summer nights and roamed the neighborhood streets if our parents were daring enough to let us. Besides the main issues of there being too many creeps out in the world today, I would have to say that technology alone could be to blame for why our children are losing their creativity, becoming obese and finding themselves emotionally and psychologically challenged. Obviously technology in itself is not evil, especially considering advances in medicine, agriculture and environmental protection, but when it comes to self-rationalized dependence on it, there is something wrong here!!

 

[bigtiller]

I'm 57 and we were warned of it when I was a kid. There were, are, and always will be, pedophiles preying on young people.

Some weirdo tried to get my sisters in his car in 1963. He had them all upset and scared to death. The family drove around for an hour before the girls seen his car at the tavern. Luckily, the cop seen him too and arrested him before dad could "visit" with him for a few minutes.

 

[Doofy]

I remember when Vagrants and Drifters were run out of town by the Law. Vigilante groups usually did what the Law couldn't or wouldn't do. My sister and I felt very safe growing up in the 50s and 60s.

 

[Sigarms]

My sister and I felt very safe growing up in the 50s and 60s.

I always felt safe growing up in the 70's.

I remember when I was 10 or so on the street playing and a UPS driver asked me to help him find some addresses. Never thought of it then, but it was VERY stupid on my part to help the guy.

As mentioned, the threat was probably always there, but we just didn't know about it.

When I was in Alaska I always had a gun on me, and only know if I were camping somewhere and someone tried to run me off forcibly, we'd have a problem if I was there legally. That's NOT going off on a dirt road with a sign that reads "Trespassers will be shot" as well LOL