First, you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets ..
As children, you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.
You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.
You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but you weren't overweight because...... YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
You 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 you all day.
And you were OK.
You would spend hours building your billy-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem .
You did not have PlayStations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, video games. at all. Zip. Nada. Zero.
No 999 plus channels on satellite TV.
No DVDs. No surround sound.
No mobile phones.
No text messaging.
No personal computers.
No Internet or Internet chat rooms..........
YOU HAD FRIENDS and if you didn't you went outside and found them!
Not post suicide notes on Social Media or self harm.
You fell out of trees, endured cuts, bruises, lacerations, broke bones and lost teeth.
But ...there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
You played with worms ) well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes.
You rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
You played sport in a local team and not everyone got picked to play every week.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing you out if you broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law ( as it was, before Political Correctness.
Our generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!!!!!
Those past 50 years were an exponential explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and, best of all, 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 plethora of ambulance chasing lawyers, Namby Pamby Statism, layer upon layer of 'Commisars' and the so called successive misgovernments thereafter '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.