Us vs Them

I had an interesting conversation for the umpteenth time the other day with my sister regarding just how challenging hard kids have it these days. I know you have had to heard the same complaints in your house. We spent quite a few minutes comparing our growing pains with theirs. Let's see just how difficult life has become...


Us..we walked, rode our bike, used the bus or if we had a friend that had a car we shared the ride. Momma did not sit in the car rider line waiting to pick us up. How many wasted hours do you spend in these lines?

Kids..cars or buses

Us..typewriter...at school only. Had to learn how to change the ribbon and use erase tape if a mistake was made. Sloppy papers had to be redone or you had a lot of red writing on that paper regarding sloppiness.

Kids...computer

Us..Book reports...had to race to the library to get a copy of the book and actually read the book to do a report on it. Don't even think about clif notes. These teachers read what they dished out to us.

Kids...internet.. everything is out there at your fingertips. Copy and paste.

Us..dictionary to check spelling. Teacher's had no fear of circling misspelled words in red ink.

Kids..dictionary.com, spell check

Us..dial phones. We had to stand still to talk to someone. No one called at dinner or late in the evening.

Kids..cell phones. Unlimited use. Can be used almost everywhere.

Us...carried our books in our hands

Kids...bookbags

Us...pencil with an eraser and paper

Kids...mechanical pencils, pens, dry erase markers, crayons, stickie notes etc. etc. etc

Us..limited channels on the tv and had rabbit ears for a signal, unless you had cable. What was that? 15 channels?

Kids..300 channels and nothing on...huh?

Us...cooked dinner and ate as a family most nights. Eating out was a treat

Kids..drive thru...too much. Very few meals together as a family.

Us...friends to hang out with. We found stuff to do. Neighborhood football/baseball games. Hide and seek at night. Flashlight tag. Riding bikes for hours. Wearing the metal wheels off on our roller skates. Fishing. Board games on rainy days. Pong video game. You could write a book report in the amount of time it took that little ball to bounce back over the net. No wonder we found stuff to do.

Kids..texting, xbox or other video games. Bored. Little or no time walking/riding bikes. Bored. Too many kids micro-managed that didn't learn how to play by themselves. Bored.

Us...camping out, sleeping in the barn (this was so much fun), sleeping under the stars in sleeping bags

Kids...summer camp, beach house

Us..radio

Kids...iPod with over 5000 songs

Us...70's clothes...flares and mini skirt..80's clothes...big hair for men and women. Stirrup pants and leggings and sometimes at the same time.

Kids...Aeropostle, Nike, American Eagle etc.

Us...movies were a treat

Kids..Netflix, PPV, purchase the dvd



I'm sure I've missed at least 10 things for every one activity we thought of. Imagine what it will be like for their children and what devices they will have.

Labels: Whatever stuff 2/