Generation of wimpy kids!

Gone are the days when our parents let us play outside all day and come inside when the street lights came on. The adult generations from the early 90's, 80's, 70's and 60's knew how to play hard, have fun and survive while playing hard and having fun. At the playground we had tons of fun and survived falling on the wood chipped ground. We brushed off our knees and elbows and kept running. We had fun sliding down the steel sliding board and survived from being burnt on the back of our legs because the sun heated the sliding board just enough to roast us. Some of us turned that fun time into a game. We would see who can take the heat by sliding down the oven baked slide. The champions mastered the way to go down the slide without getting burnt. We also had fun on the merry-go-round and learned how to survive by having someone spin it so fast and we had to hold on for dear life or risk being flung off by the force or if you stayed on you had to wait until the dizzy spell went away, That was fun. And there was the see-saws. Going up and down faster and faster with your friend on the opposite side but that friend would sometimes turn into a fast enemy when they decide to hop off when they were down causing you to crash to the ground. Then we would chase them toward the monkey bars. And we would swing and climb to the top. Once at the top, we would carefully stand up feeling like the champion of the playground. And then the survival of climbing back to the ground having a tight grip on the steel bars. Sometimes we slipped and sometimes we fell. But we had fun . And don't cry because we heard the chant of "Cry Baby, Cry, Cry Baby, Cry." The teasing was relentless but we developed a tough skin. In the mist of being teased by other friends or family we learned how to "hike" and participated in the hiking using the Yo, momma so fat......, Yo, momma so dumb...... or You're so short......". We would go back and forth with the other person putting them down and humiliating them in front of their friends as they would do the same with us.

We would walk to the candy stores. That was our corner store. And the candy store actually sold candy. We would load up on the junk food. We had the stash of 25 cents juices, 50 cents C&C sodas, 25 cents potato chips, cookies, ice cream that came with a small wooden spoon.

At home we watched real cartoons such as Looney Tunes. We enjoyed watching Elmer Fudge hunt rabbits and ducks, giving bombs as gifts and watched it explode in the person's face. Oh and when they were chasing each other toward the edge of a cliff, one cartoon character would stop at the very edge as the other cartoon character kept running only to realize that they are now standing on air, then they drop to the 50 feet to the ground below. That always happened with Coyote and the Roadrunner. That gave us such laughs. And we watched Scooby Doo solve the mysteries while Shaggy and Scooby always had the munchies. (You do realize that Shaggy was always high on the herb, right?)

Even school was fun. We had recess, we played games, we had gym and played dodge ball using a hard ball! And guess what everybody wasn't a winner. We had LOSERS!!!! We learned and understood that you will lose in life. And you will have people calling you a loser. And we actually was learning in the classroom. We learned things that made sense. We knew how to solve math problems using the basic operations that we need to use and still use in our adult life. We had enough homework to still be able to go outside and be a kid.

WHAT HAPPENED!

We, the strongest to survive generations of the early 90's, 80's, 70's and 60's made our kids too sensitive, bratty, spoiled and dumb to life. Everything that made us resilient has been taken away. The playground now have a foam like ground because the kids can fall and get hurt or the ground covered sticks can cut them or poke them in the eye. See there, we created softies! The steel sliding boards are gone and has been replaced with plastic because the kids can suffer burns. See there, we created Wimps! The merry-go-rounds, see saws and monkey bars are gone because too many kids were getting hurt. Either they got knocked in the head, experience back pains and the monkey bars injuries was too numerous. The candy stores are now dollar stores that aren't walking distance. And now the kids can't have the artificial coloring of this and that and Red Dye # 4's and 2's. We didn't care about that stuff nor did our parents but these kids have the most allergies and have gluten issues. WHAT THE HECK IS A GLUTEN!? Cheerios is now gluten free and they made such a big deal about it that they had to make a gluten free Cheerios commercial.  The cartoons were too violent for the kids. And School....! They give so much homework it would take the kids hours to complete. They don't have time for themselves!

We've turned our kids into overly sensitive robots like us. Kids today can't break a nail without them crying for mommy and daddy to rescue them. Now what I'm about to say......just take it or toss it out......we've been bullied and we've done the bullying as well. The laws tightened up on bullying in schools because the suicide rates had doubled due to bullying. Now I am against bullying. I do not condone it. I've been on both sides of the fence. When I was bullied, I sucked it up and told my parents. I ignored them, it worked for some. But there was a few who had to be put in their place. My son was in the 5th grade a couple of years ago, new school, new kid and it was his first time dealing with a bully situation. He told me what happened. Me and his stepdad would go to the school about once a week because of the bullying. It was always something that the kid said or did. Then one day, we told him how we handled the situations back in the day. Well, let's just say, he didn't have anymore issues with the boy. I'm not saying that kids should fight situations out but we knew how to handle most situations when it came about. Even if we had to get our big sister, brother or cousins involved.

Have you noticed that Game Stop took the place of Toys R Us? While we were outside getting dirty and playing with our new toys, our kids are glued to the new game system or cell phones. They would feel as if they would die if they go an hour without their phones. (Just like us) We have taught our kids how not to be a kid. We taught them how not to have fun. When I think of my childhood I think of fun. I asked a 7th grader what do they think of their childhood so far and they said, "It's Okay." IT'S OKAY! What happened to fun! What happened to taking our kids to Chunk E Cheese, skating, the zoo, county fairs, and parks on the weekend so they can go back to school on Monday to brag about their weekend. We need to let these kids live and allow them to be kids and enjoy their childhood. As a young girl and I'm sure my other fellow females can relate to this, back in the 80's and early 90's I played with my Barbie dolls, Cabbage Patch Kids, Strawberry Shortcake dolls that actually smelt like strawberries, Easy Bake Ovens and had sleepovers with pillow fights. Today, the girls are into hair, make-up, fashion and gaining the most followers on social media. The young boys back in the day was into He-Man, Thundercats, Nintendo, Power Rangers and stayed at the basketball courts determined to be the next Michael Jordan. Today the boys are mainly into PS4's and XBOXs. The problem is, that's all that their playing. They can't unplug.

Great minds developed in the 60's through early 90's because we used our imagination. We were outside having fun, being a kid, figuring out life. It's a sad time for these kids. The parks are empty, toy stores are becoming extinct, the ice cream trucks don't drive down the street 3 times a day or at it's usual 4:30 time, Chuck E Cheese's are disappearing, dolls and action figures are flying off the shelves. Two of the largest toy stores in New York closed months ago. FAO Schwarz closed on July 15th 2015 and the Toys R Us in Times Square closed on December 31st 2015. And in its place a Gap and Old Navy Flagship will open. There's that fashion.

Bottom line our kids have 3 years of being a baby, 10 years to enjoy being a kid from ages 4-13. Then they have 4 years being a teenager and to decide what they want to do in life, if college is or isn't for them. Then they have 40 years to be an adult and be a part of the real world before they retire. We need to let these kids live, and let them experience all the wonderful craziness we experienced that turned us into successful adults. Like us when we were younger, they have to learn how to earn and work for things and don't expect things to be given to them. They need to lose and know how it feels so they can be prepared to lose in life sometimes. No! They aren't winners all the time. We have to stop coddling these kids and let them experience LIFE. These kids are soft wimps...coming from adults like us that grabbed life by the throat and took charge. So here's the deal, let's place these kids in front of the TV, sitting on the floor with a bowl of sugar frosted cereal watching a DVD Looney Toons cartoon, take them to the park which is a "safety", then let them get sugared up with junk food, eat hot dogs and hamburgers form McDonalds or Burger King, and stay outside until the street lights come on. It's time for them to LIVE!