TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a filtered bottle.

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

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight.. WHY? Because we were always outside playing.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on..

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play Stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

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

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, 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.

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I'm not advocating a lot of the things called out here. This is definitely a different time we live in, but it kinda makes you think. It makes you think of all the fun we had back them. It makes you think, "Am I allowing my kids to have that much fun, and can I?"

Reader's Digest had an article this month called Bubble Babies talking about how the "Kiddie-Safety Industrial Complex" has convinced us to part with our money -- in the name of keeping our children safer. I remember a similar story about a mom in New York that let her 9-year-old son ride the subway alone. My immediate reaction was WHAT THE...! Then I shifted to, "well if he's mature enough, I guess." Then, "surely the "sane" people outnumber the "criminal elements" by a large enough margin that he'd be safe." I was conflicted.

There's no debating that science has improved our standard of life and living, but have we taken it too far. In many ways, I think so. I'm guilty of over-protecting my kids as well. We live in one of the safest cities and neighborhoods in the country, and yet, I won't allow one of my children to go around the block, out of my sight, without at least one of the others going with them. Safety in numbers. If something does happen, there'll be someone to help, someone to scream, someone to describe what happened. The likelihood of anything more tragic than a scraped knee happening is less than me winning the multi-state lottery three times in a row in three weeks (Anyone care to calculate the odds of that just to keep me straight?).

I remember playing in an abandoned log cabin way back in the woods. I remember playing in a hay loft that was surely decrepit enough to be condemned. I remember bringing a lit sparkler into the house (and burning a hole in the carpet -- never had that babysitter again!). I remember jumping on a trampoline without the net enclosure. I remember riding my bike in the middle of the street, without a helmet. And I survived.

But... I also know of kids that have broken their arm falling on the padded section of a McDonald's play area. And a 10-ish-year-old that had to wear a halo brace for quite a while because of an injury in a ball pit if I recall (or was it a moon jump?).

I'm not saying that my parents didn't care about my upbringing or my safety - they did. I'm also not saying that I followed every rule they set.

As a parent, our children are the most precious things we "own." It's only natural to want to keep them as safe as possible, right? At whatever "cost?" If that means going a little overboard, so be it.

I don't like my kids jumping off the swing set. My wife insists that they wear helmets when they ride bikes or scooters. Are they better off because of rules like these? Probably. At least in the short-term. Will it prevent them from taking chances, risking it all, finding the cure for Cancer? Only time will tell. I hope not.