A good friend and fellow blogger Mr. Night commented to me recently about my last post. We were chuckling about the "when I was your age, and in my day comments that parents and others have sad. It's funny when you hear your mother/father come out of your mouth when you address you child. But of course, as we all come to find out, no matter how much we want to be different than our parents some things will never change.

I find myself wondering though (and when am I not really) if these parentisims are universal. Are people in Pakastan telling their kids not to run with sissors because "they'll poke their eye out" Is there someone in Germany warning their daughter about sitting to close to the tv...it'll ruin his eyes you know. Or a boy in laos with a new daisy air rifle*."Hey you'll shoot your eye out with that thing!".

*an aside ..are we as parents truely preoccupied with our kids damaging eyes, or is it just the worst thing we can think of.



So the basic warnings are in place and I assume if the specifics are not accurate, then the general ideas are the same. Now comes the part that is part memory part fiction part..no you can have that.

The "in my day" refrain. In my day there were no cell phones, we had private phone lines. In my day cable TV only had 34 channels and NO REMOTE, in my day there was an actual end to tv brodcasting after which the screen would be nothing but static "Carol Anne - don't go into the light" Or the fancy walkmans we had that ate AA batteries every other day if we wanted to hear anything other than radio. Then there is the work we used to do, chopping wood, washing dishes, mowing the lawn, milking the cows..all before age 5 and all before the sun came up. Then each and every one of us old fogies would walk MILES uphill in the snow carrying 50 pounds of books to school everyday. And just like us, they roll their eyes and go on being kids promising to them selves that they will never ever be like their parents.



Well good luck kids and god speed, but talk to me in 25 years and we will see how many times you've told your son or daughter to "close the damn door, we're not heating the neighborhood!"