It was World Health Day yesterday… the BRAVEday team were going to come to work in our sports gear and I was going to use this for our blog this week - touting how important it is to stay fit and healthy, for you and your family -especially being a great role model for your kids.
As so often happens at our office, things changed, and I was left blog-less. So, in order to keep with the "Kids" social media theme we have going on this month, there is nothing else for it but to stick with what I know (at the risk of sounding like a dinosaur).
Things "70s & 80s Kids" did that would horrify kids today (and their parents):
- Walked to the shops that were 3kms away, to get a 5c bag of mixed lollies. Without parental supervision.
- Bike helmets were for dorky kids protecting their dorky brains. Knees were skinned, and bruises a badge of honour, not a shameful secret that your parents felt they had to hide even though you just got them falling out of a tree.
- Were totally uncontactable in the weekend from the time they left the house at 9am, until they returned just before dark. In today's terms, this would be called being "lost" or "abducted".
- Being sent by your grandma to the dairy to buy her cigarettes.
- SPF4 was being responsible with sun screen; sunburn and peeling was a normal part of the beginning of summer - it's how you built up a tan.
- The highlight of your Christmas holiday was playing swing-ball with strangers in a camping ground… not an iPad or kindle in sight, and you got there by a rickety old car, not a plane.
- Long road trips meant playing eye spy from the back of the station wagon - no seatbelts, no DVD players to keep you amused.
- You waited in the car at the supermarket while mum shopped. You could WIND your own window down if it got hot.
- Jumping on a trampoline with exposed springs and no safety net … the fear of being "spring-ed" or bouncing right off made you a better trampoliner -survival of the fittest.
While I am a real fan of modern technology and would never be without it, I feel kind of sorry for the kids of today growing up in such a complicated time. What else can you remember that today's young generation are missing out on?