I’ve gotten to the age where I’ve caught myself thinking, “Man, this was a lot better when I was a kid…”  So tell us - how was life a little better when you were young?

1) Saturday Morning Cartoons.  Now cartoons are on all the time, but there was just something special about being excited to wake up early on a Saturday morning to watch TV.

2) My penmanship.  The only time I really write anything anymore is to sign checks.  In school I used to love taking notes in 30 different colors and I was pretty proud of my awesome handwriting.  Now?  Chickenscratch!

3) Family TV shows - right now, there just aren’t too many good ones.  But do you all remember The Cosby Show?  Family Ties? Diff’rent Strokes?

4) Playing outside - Do kids do that now?  I remember playing Barbies with the kids in the neighborhood, consolidating all our toys into one big Barbie town.  I remember staying out after dark to catch fireflies and put them in a glass jar.

5) Sports Heroes were good guys - Ryne Sandburg, Walter Payton…these weren’t sports icons who were famous because they were controversial or had a loud mouth.  They were heroes because they played their games well and were respected by not only their teammates, but opposite teams as well.  The only current good guy I can think of is Brett Favre, and he doesn’t count, because he’s old. 

6) No war.  Well, at least not a war like we’re in now.  Can you imagine that our children have only known war since they’ve been born?  To me, the biggest political scandal was the Iran-Contra affair.
7) It’s OK to hug - I remember getting hugs from teachers, I remember staying after school in the computer lab and hanging out with my teacher (when I was 10), it was OK for teachers to show affection.  Now, everyone’s scared to show emotion in school.  I know it’s safer for kids, but still, sometimes kids just need a hug.

8) Reading was fun - I was a complete bookworm.  The library was my second home, and probably purchased half of its books from my overdue fines.  Harry Potter isn’t enough - our kids need to read more!

9) “Battle of the Network Stars” and “Circus of the Stars” - Anyone remember those?  Our favorite TV stars put their egos aside and the networks put any rivalry to the backburner as they competed in a network olympics.

10) I wanted to be a kid - Sometimes I feel like kids today want to grow up too fast.  I wanted to be a kid for as long as I could - play with my dolls, live in my imagination…even now I’m fighting off adulthood as hard as I can!

Man, I sound like an old grumpy lady!

Next week: 10 Things You’d Buy If You Had a Million Dollars (and you had to spend it on yourself)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.