Were we Better off then?

I got this mail from a cousin of mine. Thought it was quite true.

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 matchboxes!

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just chappals and fluorescent sticker on our wheel guard.

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 laddoos and drank sugarcane juice with added sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.



We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or glass and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours riding cycles without support wheels and then went top speed down the road, only to find out we weren't still so confident on the bike!!!



After running into stinging bees / thorn bush a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the afternoon and could play all evening, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.



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 DVDs, no internet chat rooms.



We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played with marbles on the main street without footwear and sometimes that road really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.



We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy Or daddy to drive us to school, which was not just round the corner.



We made up games with sticks and pebbles.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and and wore the same shoes all summer!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of... They actually sided with the law.

This 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 you're one of them. Congratulations!



Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good. For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.



This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......

and it might put a smile on your face:

The majority of students in universities today were born in 1985.

They are called youth.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.

AIDS has existed since they were born.

CD's have existed since they were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

They believe that films such as Devdaas were written recently.

They can never imagine life before computers.

The joy of watching T.V. together with the entire neighbourhood.

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed.

And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a Mobile phone.