I was reading this listicle and a fair few of the items reminded me of my childhood. There were numerous near death experiences including one which landed me in hospital, but many more close calls that my parents didn’t even know about to this day (and I was too afraid to say anything as a beating would be all I got for it).
I don’t know if we got more protective as even my parents were horrified that I let my son walk to school on his own for the short 15 minute walk. Did they forget when I was a kid I walked 10 minutes to the bus station, took a 20 bus ride and another 10 minute walk from the bus station to the school?
I’m surprised that “because I said so” isn’t considered an appropriate response any more along with “if I have to ask you again you’ll get a smack!”.
We never had listicles in our day. Only if you were posh.
Sorry - I like to collect interesting words.
On the subject of childhood, I was a bit the other way around. My primary school was across a very busy road so couldn’t go by myself until I was perhaps 8 or 9, even though there was a lollipop lady.
My son walked to school (KG) after the first week. I did the first few days spying from the window to make sure he was at least in the right direction and then left him to it.
Geriatric millenial here. I don’t understand why helmets and seat belts are trivialized.
I did ride in the pickup bed in the ranch and dirt roads where reaching 30 kmh is a reason to open a beer and celebrate. Traveling inside the car, so nearly all the driving was at 30-50 kmh. Not because strict law enforcement but potholes and other surprises on the road. One of the events before my dad gave up driving was crashing with a cow at 40 kmh, so not much happened. Once a month, drive to the city in a divided road where reaching 100kmh during some intervals was something my dad highlighted. If nothing happened then without seat belts, it was just because dirt roads and pot holes. Back to present, it’s normal to do 120 kmh or more. Sometimes I think about a HANS device for driving in Germany (not legal).
About helmets, it was the time when bicycles stopped being only bicycles and BMX became the new thing. It was not anymore riding a bike but purposefully doing something idiotic on the bike. What do children know about ramps? Nothing hahaha. I’m thankful that I started wearing a helmet by 16 YO when I reached a phase where I could really hurt myself. And that’s because I arrived late to bicycles. These days I pass by the local pump track and I see very young children flying on the ramps. I nod with approval when I see children with helmets. Sometimes I even want to tell them about a full-face helmet when they jump high, but I shut myself up.
The world changed. Roads and cars, bicycles and ramps are not the same as before. Doing 130 kmh consistently on the motorway is not driving at 30kmh around town. And jumping high in ramps goes far beyond riding a bicycle.
PS around here we still drink water from the garden hose, right?
I’m a boomer born in 1961, OH born in 1960. We sometimes wonder how we’re still alive if our childhood exploits are anything to go by (he played on the old bomb sites in the East End of London for a start).
His sister’s kids are Generation Z, adults still living at home without the responsibility of domestic bills, they don’t even do their own washing up and dump it in the sink for mum. His niece is 25 and a primary school teacher, school is 15 minutes walk through a residential area and mummy takes her there by car, what a joke.
Emptying dishwasher (my daugher, 4, has to do the cutlery)
Sets plates on the table (daugher does cutlery)
Putting dirty plates into dishwasher (daugher puts dirty cultery in)
Empties his bin weekly and takes bin out to the kerb
Takes cardboard to recycling storage and helps take it out on recycling days
Helps to load and unload washing machine
Folds clothes and puts into drawers/wardrobe (same for daugther)
Rakes leaves, helps to shovel snow
In addition, anything in the house that needs fixing, I show him how to do it e.g. explaining electricity and how to wire a plug, how to fix door handle of dishwasher etc.
I try to get kids doing as much stuff as possible so that they learn and get used to doing it.
When I was at university, I shared a house with people who literally never operated a washing machine and couldn’t do it and people who didn’t even know how to cook pasta (one boiled spaghetti in a kettle and destroyed it). I don’t want that for my kids.
Then they reach their teens and promptly forget how to human (having also had a helpful and willing little chum up till about 12-13). However they also develop an astonishing ability to tell you how to do all known tasks because you’ve been doing it wrong all your life.
We play “hardcore” with our teen. Studying is priority 1 (obviously), chores are number 2 and gaming and/or mobile phone (which are time limited anyway) are allowed only after 1 and 2 are completed. We don’t have 100% success rate, but by and large once we introduce non-negotiable rules we don’t have daily fights. We’ve split the chores between the two kids (e.g. younger one does dishwasher older one does laundry) and they also tend to control each other a bit (hey, why are you starting the xbox, I see the dishwasher isn’t done!).
Ask your sister in law, I don’t think this is a generational problem.
In our house, the teens handle their rooms and shared bathroom. I occasionally check their work and point out what they’ve “missed.” Two out of three do their own laundry, while I still handle the youngest’s, along with mine and my husband’s.
Cooking is a group effort—my husband, the youngest, and I take turns. Cleaning the man areas falls mostly me, because I like the house spotless. I am on the market for a robot that will clean our floors to help me with that. Everyone else chips in when they’re home, but between school, uni, and sports, they’re not around as much.
When extra chores pop up, like sorting recycling or taking out the bins, I make a list and divide it fairly.
Cutting the grass is our second kid’s responsibility. Once he leaves for uni, our third will have to do it.
Sometimes they need a nudge, but overall, it works smoothly.
Yeah… as just about a boomer I’m a bit cautious of all this stuff because it just sounds like my dad comparing our cushy life with his. But it’s an unavoidable fact that when we were kids we could only mirror our experience with our mates… today’s kids see a whole different word of comparative expericences and behavioural patterns on their phones.
Yeah, they pretty much all resonate with me, except for the “snack-food diet” one. I’m a boomer though, and more importantly grew up in the UK, not the US.
But the biggest difference, in my view, is that “parenting” did not exist. At all. It was not a verb. It was not a thing.
