Hey, nincompoop!

[ForteKitty]

If anything, the article is a jab at the bad parenting which resulted in the children's behavior. If i were the mother of the girl, i'd be humiliated.

 

[packrat]

We weren't allowed to touch the stove or the microwave when we were younger, so I didn't learn how to cook until..high school I suppose. My brother's *only* story about me growing up (ha, I've got about 20 stories I tell about him) is how when I was in Jr High, mom was sick and I was hungry and wanted mac & cheese-she wouldn't make it. I said fine, tell me what to do and I'll do it. She had me bring the pan to her and pointed to where to fill it w/water, said to put it on the specific burner and turn it on high. That's it, that was my instructions. I'd never read a recipe before in my life-no clue it was on the box, nothing. So finally after ages, I asked mom when it was going to be done, she got up and looked in the by now almost empty pan after the water had all boiled off and yelled "You have to put the macaroni in!" Well shit thanks a lot, kinda hard to expect me to know how to do anything if I'm not allowed near it eh? She still rolls her eyes and ohhh gaaaaawd about it but hello?

JD on the other hand, learned how to cook from his grandma at a very young age..but she neglected to teach him how to refill ice cube trays or replace the tp roll. Cookings a breeze, easy peasy lemon squeezy but land sakes don't ask the man to refill or replace.

Packrat, my heart just kinda broke for you.

I didn't get a ton of cooking lessons from my mother, but it was because I took her for granted and just didn't care. PR, you just made me think back and appreciate my mom so much more, thank you.

Aww Monnie, go give your mommy a hug and then come on over and I'll make you some macaroni and cheese all by myself. I'll even make the good Velveeta shells and cheese just for you.

 

[Jennifer W]

My grandmother was every bit as horrified at the skills I don't have!

I can't make a great job of building a coal fire, or black-leading a grate. I don't know how to dry kindling in an oven, scald-clean a washing line rope, or make soap cakes hard enough to last twice as long. I don't know how to cook certain things that were staples to her. (Sheep's head, anyone?) I couldn't safely operate her laundry mangle or heat a flat iron on an open fire or use a goffering iron to press frills (I don't wear frills, come to that). I made more mess than I ever cleared up with her carpet sweeper.

She thought of these things as essential life skills, not quaint, quirky museum stuff. Maybe there's an element of that going on? I mean, I couldn't do all that stuff, but I could do other things she couldn't. Maybe the helpless shoe-lace challenged children have skills that will be more useful to them in the long run and that we will envy in 20 years?

Or maybe not. Maybe they'll just trip over a lot.

Jen

 

[choro72]

This thread reminds me of this joke I saw a while ago
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If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious:

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning...Uphill...Barefoot...BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda...

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!

There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD! Think of the horror - not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING...yeah, right...please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent - you just didn't know! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2000, with games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids.' Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen, forever, and you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel...NO REMOTES! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play...all day long. Oh, no! No electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside, you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
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