OneGuyFromBarlick

CHILDREN


We have survived Christmas! In case you hadn't noticed, I have back-pedalled this year on my normal warnings about over spending and eating too much. Nobody likes a party pooper! Now I feel it's safe to come out of the closet and admit that at my time of life, living on my own and having read too much history to believe deeply in a baby Jesus being born on December 25th Christmas is largely ignored in this house in terms of trees and decorations. My reason for this is that it's all about the children and I hope they have all had a good time and won't suffer too much in the playground when comparisons are made about who got the best pressie!
I worry about young children, I say 'young' because my daughters have all had good lives and are either dead or nearing retirement so there's no point worrying about them. The next generation is a different matter. For the first time in modern history we have generations of children who, on present evidence, are going to have a harder time than we had. Despite wars, atomic threats and hard times we were always on an upwards path and many of us have reached the sunlit uplands of retirement relatively well off and probably more comfortable than at any time in history. I'm afraid that on present evidence, we had the glory years and as far as I can see the future is very uncertain. How did this come about? In what way are our kids worse off now? I'll try to justify my misgivings.
My generation wasn't constantly bombarded with advertising and the perils of 'social media'. Trolls to us were characters in stories by the Brothers Grimm. Despite the shortages of the war we were better nourished as children than our parents, in fact we have been called 'the last healthy generation' because we weren't plagued by allergies, smothered by atmospheric pollution or poisoned by unscrupulous food manufacturers chasing profits. After the war we got the benefit of the new antibiotics which were miracles, now we are told that they are losing their potency and some scientists are predicting rising death rates from common infections because the bugs have developed resistance.
Economically, housing is a problem because of high prices and because of the current climate wages are set to reduce in real terms for perhaps ten years if we are lucky. Then there is the self imposed calamity of Brexit.....
Enough, you get the picture. All we can do and I urge you to think about it, is do our best to try to ease our children's passage into life. Feed them well, not only physically but mentally. Try to gently guide them away from their smart phones towards books. Give them the simple experiences we had like looking after animals and roaming about the countryside, it all helps! Children are for life not just Christmas. They need looking after more than ever!



Kids being exposed to germs in 1969!

Claims about the healthiest generation are debatable. For example, post-50s generations were taller and have better skin and teeth than earlier generations, thanks to better nutrition and improved medical care. More recently we started going backwards due to obesity and poor dental health.

All claims are debatable Tiz. I shall just bugger on in the belief that being reared with only pollution and dirt to contend with was good for me! (Oh, and the Luftwaffe!)

Bumped and still pertinent. (I wasn't far out with my predictions on wages was I!)

Bumped again. The situation hasn't improved for the kids, in fact in respect of things like wars it's a lot worse for some.
Will we never learn?

She’s used to handling animals isnt she?

Yes Gloria, Margaret went farming for a long time after she left school. She was always round the animals particularly cows. She went with me in the cattle wagon many times.....

For a good account of the subject I would strongly recommend 'Post War Chidhood' by Simon Webb

Post War Childhood


Synopsis:
Many British baby boomers are very nostalgic about a supposed golden age; a vanished world when children were generally freer, happier and healthier than they are now. They wandered about all day; only returning home at teatime when they were hungry. Nobody worried about health and safety or 'stranger danger' in those days and no serious harm ever befell children as a result. In Post-War Childhood, Simon Webb examines the facts and figures behind the myth of children's carefree lives in the post-war years, finding that such things as the freedom to roam the streets and fields came at a terrible price. In 1965, for example, despite there being far fewer cars in Britain, 45 times as many children were knocked down and killed on the roads as now die in this way each year. Simon Webb presents a 'warts and all' portrait of British childhood in the years following the end of the Second World War. He demonstrates that contrary to popular belief, it was by any measure a far more hazardous and less pleasant time to be a child, than is the case in the twenty-first century.

I don't think I have ever said that childhood was not dangerous. In terms of the chances of death and disease it was far more dangerous then than it is now but we still spent more time roaming free. Perhaps Mr Webb was not old enough or lucky enough to have experienced that. There was the whole enormous adventure playground of bomb-sites and we could walk into many places of work with no hindrance. Look at the access to the weaving sheds in Barlick and My favourite was Heaton Mersey loco sheds......