Born yesterday

Children today are wrapped in cotton wool... if you lived as a child in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or early 1980s, looking back, it is hard to believe we have lived as long as we have!

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Our cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cupboards and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets. Roller skates had four wheels each and straps to fasten them to your feet.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scrap and then ride down the hill... only to find out we forgot to install brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem. We 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 us all day. No mobile phones. We got cut and broke bones and teeth and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame except us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We ate cakes, bread and butter, and drank orange squash cordial, but we were never overweight... we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games, 65 channels on pay TV, video tape movies, surround sound, personal mobile phones, PCs, internet chat rooms... we had friends. We went outside and found them.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! On our own! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian - how did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

Footy and netball had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who did not had to learn to deal with disappointment... Some pupils were not as smart as others so they failed an exam and were held back to repeat the same year. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually took the side of the law - imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you are one of them. Congratulations!

If you want to, pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as children, before lawyers and the government regulated our lives... for our own good...!