a star made of elves. or an elf made of stars | When I was a kid, I didn't have a laptop, iPod, Blackberry, PS3, Wifi or iPads. I played outside with friends, bruised my knees, made up stories and played hide and seek. I ate what my mom made. I would think twice before I said "no" to my parents. Life wasn't hard, it was good & I survived. Kids these days are spoiled. Reblog this if you appreciate the way you were raised. I think we were happier kids.

Jan 08

When I was a kid, I didn’t have a laptop, iPod, Blackberry, PS3, Wifi or iPads. I played outside with friends, bruised my knees, made up stories and played hide and seek. I ate what my mom made. I would think twice before I said “no” to my parents. Life wasn’t hard, it was good & I survived. Kids these days are spoiled. Reblog this if you appreciate the way you were raised. I think we were happier kids.

torayot:

name-redacted:

esmeweatherwax:

quantumscoot:

I think this post is fucking stupid because hey

You could just say we grew up on records and lomos and we were better kids

fucking nostalgia-wanking. get over yourselves. I mean it’s not as if SOCIETIES AND CULTURES EVOLVE, RIGHT? NO NOT AT ALL

^^^^^

LET’S ALL GO BACK TO CAVES AND DRAWING WITH MUD

True, kids in my day didn’t have laptops and iPods, but we did have processed cheese slices, high unemployment and rampant heroin abuse so … you know … swings and roundabouts?

Hee!

To think the above, I think you’d have to have been a fairly privileged kid who wasn’t directly or indirectly affected by the social problems of that era.

People sigh and gloss over the past, playing it back in their heads in the style of jaunty artificial 50s adverts. Odd.

I also grew up without any of those fancy technological things and I didn’t say no to my parents much and blah blah blah, but I’m sorry, when I look back at my childhood the overarching theme is control, lack of autonomy, coercion, and disrespect for my thoughts & feelings from adults. Adultism was rampant in the 80’s and stranger-danger was at its height and it was fucking miserable a lot of the time. I treat my son with respect and give him as much control over his own life as I can and to some he may seem spoiled, but I look at him and see a kid who isn’t being smooshed down by my control. He’s a human, not a second class citizen. He may be smaller and have spent less time on this planet, but it doesn’t make his own thoughts and feelings and desires any less valid. So yes, there is much good commentary above, but I felt like this little piece, from a parents POV needed to be tossed in there, too.

Word to Jasie.

Also? I grew up in a fucking shithole dead-end town where half the people lived in trailers and the only way out was through the community college which everybody went to but half of everybody had to drop out of because they got pregnant or their mom had a disability they had to take care of or their dad went to jail. I had no access to perspectives or information outside of that town other than the books in a tiny one-room library, 35 channels of stolen cable, and a 1966 encyclopedia. When I finally got a computer I went full-throttle soaking up information about religions other than Southern Baptism, towns other than Bumfuck, Florida, cultures that didn’t involve Confederate flags hanging off the back of pickup trucks, music that wasn’t on the top 40 station, and the parts of my own body that conservatism hadn’t taught me the proper names of. Also, you know, science. I’m more open-minded, well-rounded and educated because I had internet access.

The kids I babysit have access to technology I couldn’t dream of. My dyslexic 15-year-old has a laptop with screen-readers and text-to-speech dictation and Skype, so he can talk to people on the other side of the world if he wants. He uses an iPhone to play word games that he doesn’t realize are building his language skills beyond anything he does at school. My 11-year-old with cerebral palsy uses a computer to speak, write, draw, pray, and do math. My gifted 13-year-old, who struggles to relate and feel understood, can use Facebook to surround herself with people who get her. These kids, like me, are better people for the technology they have access to.

184,354 notes | Reblogged: (via)

4 months ago Source: raisabakit