Kids today have it easy

“When I was a kid adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious
diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with
walking twenty-five miles to school every morning uphill both ways through
year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs to
their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a straight-A average
despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where
they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from
starving to death! And I remember promising myself that when I grew up there
was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids
about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But....

Now that I've reached the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look
around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy!

I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a friggin’ Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got
it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet-we wanted to know
something, we had to go to the damned library and look it up ourselves!

And there was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter-with a
pen!--and then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in
the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

And there were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to go
to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or we had to wait around all
day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the
beginning and screw it all up!

You want to hear about hardship?

You couldn't just download porn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy
you a copy of "Hustler" at the 7-11! It was either that or jackoff to the
lingere section of the JC Penney catalog! Those were your options!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and
somebody else called, they got a busy signal!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When phone rang, you had
no idea who it was; it could be your boss, your mom, a collections agent,
your drug dealer, you didn't know!!! You just had to pick it up and take
your chances, Mister!

And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation videogames with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like
"Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ass! Your guy was
a little square! You had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple
levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win,
the game just kept getting harder and faster until you died! Just like
LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating!
All the seats were the same height! A tall guy sat in front of you, you
were screwed!

And sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 20
channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book
called a TV Guide to find out what was on!

And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday
morning... ...D'ya hear what the hell I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL
WEEK, you spoiled little brats!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy.

You're spoiled! You guys wouldn't last five minutes back in
1984!”

“LMFAO

I'm 40...I could get started too....



but I'm not!! I am figuring someone else will do it for me.”

“It was emailed to me a while back. I heavily identified with it, thought it was a scream and kept it. Just passing it on.”

“What a riot!”

“Of course the 30-somethings had it pretty damn easy too.

Softies!”

“We had:

No cable.
No remote control.
3, maybe 5 channels.
They went off the air from about midnight to 6 am.
Atari? What's that? - Board games, cards, etc.”

“30?! Boy when I was your age I was 35!!! You slacker!!!



Dang kids!”

“c cat: it was pretty funny...but I am with violin on that one.

3 or 4 channels, no video games for this old soul.

riding my bike, roller skating, climbing trees for me. Oh yeah, and a board game once in a while.

I will have to save this one though and send it to my friend. :)”

“I was just having this conversation the other day! LMAO!!!

One of my kids friends actually HAS an Atari and they laugh about how sucky it is.

And I didn't get cable in my house - the one I grew up in- till after I moved out (We lived in the sticks)”

“Cable? Atari? I don't have any of this, just the good ol' internet and telephone to keep me happy.”

“Somehow I've been fortunate enough to have kids who in spite of all the modern toys actually spent time playing outside.

Tree climbing, baseball, football, soccer, catch, fort building,riding bikes, setting up their own eco-challenge and one of my favorites....stick boat racing. They had a little collection of sticks that they would race in the gutter when it rained or would use a hose. Each "boat" had a name (fat boy, slick, mercury, etc.)and they were kept in a cigar box.

Imagination.....the greatest playmate.”

“I threw my kid's playstation out about a year ago, told him to go out and play. He was upset at first, but of course he got over it. Now he is getting pretty good at skateboarding, much to his papa's pleasure.”

“I wouldn't want to be a kid today for anything. They may have a lot of material goods, but they have no real freedom. Their lives are so organized and regulated and watched over that playtime doesn't exist anymore, unless it's a formal "play date". Parents are so fearful, the kids can't do anything fun anymore. Today's Post had an article about how sales of kids bikes are soaring, but the kids don't actually get a chance to ride them, because their parents are so afraid of something happening that they aren't allowed out of the parents sight. Riding up and down a cul de sac isn't the same as going for a bike ride. When I was a kid, we were pretty much on our own. If we wanted, we could wander the desert for hours, or go from friend's house to friend's house, or just sit under a tree and read, and nobody worried about us unless we were late for dinner. I had many days when I took off at 7 am and returned home at 6 pm and never called to say where I was, because it just wasn't expected. My husband used to grab some food and a sleeping bag and go off in the woods alone - at 14. How many kids can even imagine that kind of freedom?”

“i have this conversation with my kids every day. I throw them out every day...force them to play outside.

ginny you're right... there is no way I would let my kids go anywhere further then down the road. That's pretty sad.

A couple weeks ago the cops came into a highschool or middle school here in columbia. How you call it?? they pointed guns at the kids, made them lay on the floor, etc... stuff like that. Thank god, it wasn't in my kids school...I don't even want to think about it.

That's what it's coming to.

Okay..this is a fun thread... i remember when I climbed the apple tree in the backyard. I was mad at my sister and threw an apple at her. She opend her big mouth about the same time...heeheehee...the apple landed in her mouth. I'll never forget that day.”

“ROFLMAO!!!! I can picture that!

I remember when my family got the first color TV.I remember buying my first digital clock it cost 69.00 and now they are what? 8.99?

Bannana seats on bikes
Orange Hotwheel tracks
"Pong" was the only video game”

“let me rear my nasty head here...it would seem to me that most of the subjects that have been ranted or griped about with kids nowadays, are just things that the 50 somethings to the 30 somethings either inventd or started in the direction they are now...coming from a 21 yo farm boy's perspective here with i didnt grow up restricted on my travels by bicycle, horse, or foot...sometimes you gotta look at the bright side...how many of the "older GENS" in here were taking calculus in 12th grade...or even dreaming of writing computer programs like the ones written today....CHANGE...scary huh....im sore that 10 or 20 years from now ill be the one who had to DRIVE to school in the blinding sun, on 1/4 tank of gas, with only my cd player to keep me company, while dreaming of getting home to play my OOOOOOLLLDDDD Playstation "1"...some just have it harder than others huh?”

“*^*&&%#$ kids these days!
I saw a drunken kid in my yard passed out... wholesome all american looking kid, maybe 16/17. I asked if he was OK, watched his breathing worried about him getting hypothermia. Then looked inside my car... a brick there and the ignition smashed to bits... and he was off like a rocket.”

“Hell I'm 25 and we didn't have cable on my road until about 10 years ago. We had 5 channels, but you had to stand on one leg with a piece of aluminum foil in one hand to get two of the channels to come in.”

“Four Yorkshiremen

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
You're right there, Obadiah.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
A cup o' cold tea.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Without milk or sugar.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Or tea.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In a cracked cup, an' all.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, 'e was right.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, 'e was.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Cardboard box?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.
ALL:
They won't!”

“ginny and others,

I grew up with all the freedom in the world, my parents would allow me to do whatever I wanted, as long as I didn't do anything stupid, and then, only then would I be grounded and not allowed to leave their supervision. At the age of 15 I took some food, sleeping bags, a tent and a friend and canoed down the river, I liked that so much i did it 4 more times after that... once for 200 miles. Around the age of 13 I started building a cabin, well, at first it was a few twigs, spare boards, and logs fasioned into somewhat of a wall with a ceiling that would fall on people if the leaned against the wall. But, within a few years I moved the location a few feet, and built a sturdy cabin, 2 rooms, with a fireplace, and as I got older we spent many nights out there, usually in the winter, well below zero kept warm by the heat of a homemade fireplace... I wonder if i have any pictures of that place... I'm sure it's still standing, last time I was out there there was a dead raccoon and the walls were rotting, and the floor was quite a mess, but it was fun while it lasted.”

“Cut the kids a break. A little nookie in the backseat could kill 'em. Now there is something we didn't have to deal with.”

“When Chili and I moved to the country our children are learning what it is like to play outside from morning to dark without one of us on top of them. They are learning to climb trees and ride a bike. It is really nice to let them be kids. When you live in the city you just cant do that!”

“Kids have it easier in many respects but very much harder in others.

It's balanced.”