Everything our parents did, but are told not to do...

You've probably all seen this email that went around. I thought it would be amusing to share it again here before some of the real issues:

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-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight 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 O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride 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 Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, 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 or 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 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. Imagine that!!
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!
If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

But really AMUSING is all this email was, there are a million 'NO, NO's in there' Most of which I will leave to you to figure out, but I do have some interesting info below:

Despite years of confusing, mixed messages about whether red wine, chocolate, fish, coffee or eggs are good for us or maybe somehow toxic, there have been enough randomized clinical trials to offer some undeniable truths: high cholesterol, low exercise, excessive sun, inhaling cigarette smoke, failing to wear a seatbelt, and excessive drinking while pregnant can hurt you (or your baby). They may not, but they CAN, or quite likely will, depending on the behavior. Studies in the U.S have shown that death rates from heart disease have dropped by 50% in the last 20 years — about half the decline is thought to be due to prevention.

“It would be a disservice to say that (modern, healthier habits) don’t make any difference,”. That was a quote by Dr. Daniel Berman, chief of cardiac imaging at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles. He went on to say “I’m 100 percent convinced that the things we’re doing are extending our younger years.

Berman was also quoted saying the more controversial “The bottom line is that things like bike accidents where a kid died because they didn’t wear a helmet, were rarely occurred. But if your kid happened to fall and was 1 out of 10,000 who died, you must live with knowing it was preventable,”.

Genetics has a role to play too ! Our longevity is rooted in our DNA — 50 percent of our health outcome in fact is estimated to be determined by our chromosomes. You only have to look at Winston Churchill. He smoked cigars, was overweight and yet lived to 90; and yet athletes with healthy lifestyles have dies of heart attacks at 52.

As a parent some things are obvious to me, the health precautions like not drinking or smoking whilst pregnant, not smoking around children, sleeping babies on their back to prevent cot death (see my section on SIDS for other advice), wearing helmets, vaccinating our kids etc.....

It's the less obvious I struggle with. When Isabelle was around 10mths I bought a baby walker, similar to one I had as a baby, only to find out that they were not recommended for use at all. Was it for obvious reasons like they could walk off over the end of a flight of stairs? or walk into a book shelf and bring everything crashing down? Well yes those too, injuries from walkers do exist as would any injuries if you left a child unsupervised. The one that got me was that it is claimed that children using walkers learn to walk later as they are not using their own muscles, nor can they see their feet (the right stimulus) and I even read that it could effect development of the formation of their legs.

Well I didn't throw the walker out. I am most of my generation had them and we all walk just fine. Instead I decided to limit use of it to only a few mths between cruising and walking and only to 10min sessions once in a while.

The list of things we are no longer allowed to do, but that our parents did are endless, some are very sensible and some need to be taken with a pinch of your own salt (make your own minds up). That's just my view anyway.