The World He Grows Up In Will Not Be Simple

We spent this weekend with our 4-year old grandson and every time we do I think about the world he will grow up in.  Forget about the obvious like school shootings and the issues that divide our country.  I am more troubled by how complicated it is to be a kid these days for many, many reasons.  Even at a young age they have to deal with things that were unimaginable in my day…we didn’t even know what they were.  Life should be simple for young kids and it was in “my day” but it’s not any longer.  Today’s children may have cooler gadgets to entertain them but they will never know how much fun it was to play hide-and-seek, hopscotch, Simon says, kick ball and stay outside with your friends often until it was dark.

Growing up in the 50’s, 60’s and even the early 70’s was so much easier than it is today for kids and parents.  Sure there was peer pressure and bullying but nothing like today and we were pretty innocent.  Young boys used to glance at their father’s issues of National Geographic for what was often their first picture of a naked woman. When you got to 13 or 14 you became a neighborhood hero if you got hold of a Playboy magazine.  That was a time when the worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was “cooties.”

We didn’t call drugs drugs…rather they were prescriptions from your doctor, some of whom made house calls.  If you did something wrong you often told your parents first because sooner or later they would find out about it and that would be much worse.  If you cried when you made your confession you had a better chance of a light punishment.

I am well aware that every older generation tends to wax poetic about the “good old days” and in truth they probably weren’t as good as we thought they were.  One thing is for sure and that is it was much simpler to be a kid.