Those were the days..... : click image for information

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because ...

Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead- based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

We rode bikes in packs of 7, and wore our coats by only the hood. And we did not have helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same. We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We threw custard pies, and shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can, and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went to speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.   After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them. We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded..... We made up games with sticks, stones, and tennis balls. We played hopscotch, elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones, but there were no lawsuits. We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents. And the idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.

We walked to friend's homes. We also walked to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

This same 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 we had the luck to grow up as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives - " for our own good."

Aaah.. those were the days......

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