How Did We Survive?

In the last week, I read something about safety for our children. It was about swing seats or children's toys, I am not sure which and it struck me that we are lucky our civilization survived.  I mean, think about it, we had Giant Slides and monkey bars, and swing seats made out of boards.  On top of all of that, many of us remember when seat belts weren't even an option in cars and "car seats" for infants actually hung over the back of the seat and had a steering wheel for the child to play with.  We shouldn't have survived any of this.  I want to make sure that nobody misunderstands me here: I am all for children, and all of us being safe, but sometimes you have to wonder if we haven't crossed the line between safe and silly.  I have to admit, some of the most joyous times we had as children were in the wild games of chase on the monkey bars, and yes, often someone ended up in tears from a fall, but I do not remember a serious injury.

My generation used to be able to have fun with two tin cans and a piece of string.  Do kids still play telephone?  Now, I have to admit that there were probably some things that we did that would not be considered smart at this point, and were probably really questionable then.  Some of the things that fall under this category are bottle rocket fights, shooting each other with BB guns (but not from close range) and of course, what about Lawn Darts?  Who would ever think that throwing a weighted, pointed piece of steel into the air and waiting for it to come back down wasn't a good idea?  You have to wonder when they pitched that one at the toy company, who was thinking on that day.  In fact, I have to admit that I have never even seen a set of lawn darts in a garage sale.  This is probably a pretty good indication there was universal consensus that these were a bad idea.

So where am I going today?  Last week I celebrated the birthday of my daughter, which means I no longer have teenagers in the family.  In the midst of this change it struck me that as diligently as we try to protect our children from all of the lawn darts of the world, we still have to send them out there to be on their own.  I had to ask myself if by protecting them in every way that I could, had I really prepared them for the world that they are going in to.  When we went into the world, we knew that a sharpened piece of steel thrown into the air would come back in a manner that could really hurt.  I hope that all of the children we have raised know that.  When I worked for Drake, I remember listening to the VP of Academics speaking to a group of parents at a Freshman orientation.  He had been asked how Drake could assure that this parent's pride and joy would not come to Drake and embrace all sorts of radical ideas.  I remember being glad that I didn't have to answer the question.  But in truly admirable fashion, he explained that if the parents had been educators, and not just providers, they had nothing to worry about and the children attending Drake would grow to be productive members of our society.  I also remember watching parents ask themselves that exact question as though it was not something they had ever considered.

At this point, I believe that I have been an educator for my children and that they are prepared to go out into the world and do great things.  But at the same time, I wonder if they may have missed out on some of the adventures of life because Sara and I were so busy keeping them safe.  There is no doubt that we did the job the best way that we knew how, but still at the end we send them out to tackle the world on their own.  I know they will do great, but over two decades of programming, I will continue to worry about both of them.  I doubt that this is any different than our parents felt, sending us off to cope with the world and worrying about us the whole time.  Time will tell.  In the midst of this though, look out if I ever have grandchildren.  We are going to do all sorts of activities that will get me labeled as the "fun" grandparent.  So...beware.

On the Toybox front, I actually opened an Etsy store this week.  There is only one item out there, yet but it would be my intention to increase my offering over time. It will be fun to let people see what I can make and what kind of quality I believe in.  Heck, maybe somewhere along the line I may even sell something.  Who knows.  Find me at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ToyboxWoodworking.