What Our Kids May Never Know…. November 8, 2011

I can’t imagine growing up the way kids today do. Technology has changed so much, and continues to change just as quickly. It amazes me the things computers / tablets / cell phones can do. Then there are the changes in trends in fashion, television, and music. The things we (as a society) see as acceptable, what’s considered safe, it’s all changed. Every move kids today make, the mistakes, all so easily shared with the world. It’s such a different world than the one I grew up in….that being said, I’m sure kids today can’t imagine some of the stuff we grew up with.

:::::Things Kids Today May Never Know:::::

• Cassette tapes
• Mix tapes made from songs on the radio
• 8 tracks & Record Players
• Laser Disk Players & VHS
• Life without a computer
• Floppy Disks
• Life without the Internet (And I don’t just mean the pre Facebook days of the Internet, I mean having no Internet in the house at all)
• Dial up Internet (Okay, some of you may still have this one)
• Actually having to go to a library to do research
• The bag cell phone (Or for that matter, any cell phone that only made calls)
• The days before Call Waiting and Caller I.D.
• Pagers
• Pay Phones…and Pay Phones only costing a quarter
• Cameras with film
• The significance of sayings like ‘You’re killing me Smalls’ and ‘McFly McFly anybody in there?’
• Passing notes in class (Maybe they still do this one, but I imagine it’s all done by text these days)
• Playing outside unsupervised until the street lights came on
• Rabbit Ears (In our first apartment our rabbit ears were covered with aluminum foil so we could get really good reception lol)
• Saturday Morning Cartoons on Regular TV
• TV Guide (When it was mailed out weekly and not a channel on cable)
• MTV playing music
• TGIF on ABC on Friday Nights (As a kid I loved Friday Night TV)
• That every time I say ‘Whoa’ I’m channeling my inner Joey from Blossom
• Speaking of Joey’s, they’ll never know about ‘How You Doin’ either
• How much video game graphics have improved since the days of the Atari and the NES
• The awful (but at the time awesomely amazing) special effects of 1980’s movies
• That Dwayne Johnson was The Rock, Mark Wahlberg used to be Marky Mark, and Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton would never be known if not for their sex tapes
• The WWE was known as WWF until the World Wildlife Foundation got mad and made them change their name
• The only reality show on TV was The Real World
• Napster and Free Music Downloading
• Gas costing under $1.oo / gallon
• How to write in cursive (unless we teach them, but the schools don’t anymore)
• French Fries in their kids meals (Don’t worry, I don’t deprive my children from that daily vegetable serving of fried potatoey goodness, we just don’t buy kids meals…which by the way are always OVERPRICED)
• Candy Cigarettes (I can still find them occasionally, but for the most part I think they are kind of frowned upon) As a kid we’d sit and ‘puff’ them so the powdered sugar coating would look like smoke

I have to say, while kids today may not be able to relate to some of my childhood memories, they definitely aren’t missing out. I watch my sons at 6 and 7 on their iPods and iPads, they have the world at their fingertips …It’s pretty awesome (As long as we teach them responsible Internet etiquette). When it comes to things like not being able to play outside unsupervised, maybe that’s not such a bad thing…We as parents just have to see it not as ‘my kids can’t play outside because it’s not safe’, but as ‘we get to play outside as family’. My list could go on and on…the differences in then and now, the good and the bad in both…but I think I’ve wasted taken up enough of your time. So what’s on your list of Things Kids Today May Never Know?

Living and Learning…A few random thoughts August 17, 2011

Things I’m Learning…

A few things I’ve picked up over the years, and a few stolen quotes that say it all… (all jumbled into one random list…sorry for the scatterbrainedness in this post…my mind is all over the place today lol)

• We are entitled to free speech only when that speech doesn’t offend anyone else, the same goes for having one’s own opinion
• If you wouldn’t say or do it in front of your spouse, don’t do it
• If I pass on my beliefs to my children, beliefs that I get from the Bible, I am wrong in society’s eyes
• Van Wilder was right, ‘Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but doesn’t get you anywhere
  
• While agreeing to disagree is one of the best ideas out there, adults have just as hard of time with this concept as little kids do
• Adults are just children who know more ways to call you a cootie filled butt head
• ‘How are you?’ is a greeting not a question…no one really cares [I’m talking to you grocery store check out clerk!!]
• NOTHING good comes from quiet kids!
• Celebrate the small victories!!!!
• Never pray for anything for yourself…pray for guidance and give thanks for all you have instead. Prayer feels so much better when not begging God for things!
• It’s okay to be done with someone…no hard feelings or mean words/thoughts necessary, just done…we are adults…life’s too short to spend it surrounded by people who erk you
• For some reason people think they are entitled to anything they want, from respect to a hand out….I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…If you didn’t earn it, you don’t deserve it, and you certainly aren’t entitled to it
• ‘Love the life you live, and live the life you love’ – okay I stole this one…not sure where it came from but it’s a good thought!
• ‘A man’s gotta know his limitations’ Clint Eastwood – this works with anything in one’s life
• Bob Dylan really is right ‘All I can be is ME, whoever that is!’
• And lastly, to quote myself, {don’t laugh} ‘No matter how much crap the day throws at you, it will keep going, so I will keep going, knee deep in dookie and kicking ass the whole way’ – Basically, no matter how you feel the day keeps going, might as well attempt to make the best of it 😉