Hey man, thanks for the insight into your youth, those sound like some tough times you endured.. But you came out the other side and I bet are all the stronger for it.. Hopefully you had good family and friends to help you find the right path.. Good on you for being too quick for the bullies as well... I can just imagine you pegging it away, you had waited so long for the Adidas, that noone was going to take them away!! I loved growing up in Ireland in the 80s/early 90s.... Much simpler times, no smart phones, and only a few had comnputers... We played outside for hours on end... Once I got my jobs done around the house for my Mum, I was able to go off with my friends for 4 or 5 hours unsupervised... My used to go off in play in the fields and make treehouses, climb rocks, try cigarettes for the first time... I think we were only 7 or 8 when we tried the cigarettes!! We didn't inhale or anything, but it was just some rebellion... I must say I prefer that I grew up then.. I feel sorry in some ways for the kids today.. They are too molly-coddled and do not have the same freedom we had, and they are also slaves to technology, but I guess we all are...
Hey man, sorry for the late reply :) I finally got my hands on a computer, lol! It wasn't all that bad; I actually had a happy childhood in spite of the financial struggles and the teen gangstas. Pretty much what you described - I was able to hang outside with my friends for hours.
Why do you think most parents nowadays molly-coddle and bubble-wrap their children? By the way, have you tried going outside without your smartphone? It feels good not to have tech in your pockets ;)
Ah that's great to hear, so glad you had a great childhood, and these bullies were just a small sample of your life growing up. I had run ins with bullys too, I would love to go back, as you learn over time that as soon as you confront a bully, they stop..
I think the molly-coddling is partly a result of us being over exposed to everything that happens all around the world everyday, and this promotes feelings of fear that something bad could happen to our children.. Bad things have always happened around the world, and it is no more common today than twenty years ago, but today we know about everything that happens locally, nationally and internationally. When we were growing up, our parents knew about what happened locally, and some who had time to watch the news and read the papers knew about what was happening nationally...
Fear sells, and the newspapers and news hows on TV know this, and this feeds into a culture of fear, which I think has a knock on affect on how people parent..
There are plenty of other factors, but I think this is big one..
I think you are spot on!