I went to the doctor today.

When I told her I took Aspirin for pain, she looks at me and goes "Oh you should take Paracetamol, Aspirin is dangerous."

Err… what?

Not what I’ve been told. Well, okay, if you overdose on Aspirin it’s dangerous. Obviously. That goes for any drug. But if you overdose on Aspirin, they can usually save you. If you overdose on Paracetamol… bye bye.

In Germany you can’t get Paracetamol. At all. It’s classed as a dirty, dangerous drug. Because of the overdose issue. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but that’s what I was told by a nurse. That if you overdose on Paracetamol, there is nothing that can be done to save you.

Never mind.

Then she says that you can’t give Aspirin to children. By law, you can’t give Aspirin to anyone under 20 years old.

Riiiiiiiiiight.

That brought us to talking about kids. I said what do you give them then if they hurt themselves and are in pain? Paracetamol.
Not that kids today are allowed to hurt themselves. Period.
They’re not allowed to climb trees, because they might fall off. (Duh!)
They’re not allowed to play chase because they might fall. (Duh!!)
They’re not allowed to ride their bicycle because they might fall off. (Or get run over…)
God forbid they pick up a creepy crawly, or (gasp!) a slug.

Basically, kids aren’t allowed to do anything anymore. And people wonder why there are so many hyperactive, gone wild, out of control brats??? They aren’t allowed to exhaust their bodies. They’re not allowed near any germ, houses get hoovered and cleaned so much, the slightest germ will give a kid a hell of an infection now. Asthma is rife — not because the world is so terribly dirty, but because our homes are so terribly clean now.
When I was growing up, my dad used to say "Every human needs three pounds of dirt, per week."
I think I wallowed in my, my brothers, and twentyfive other kids allowance per week. At least. I fell off my horse. I fell off trees. I fell off my bike. I got wet. I got dirty. I got hot and sweaty. I scraped my knees, arms… every bit of skin on my body. You know what? It didn’t kill me. None of it did.

I think it’s about time parents took a step back and allowed their kids to play again. So what if they get the sniffles? So what if they scrape a knee? That’s what being a kid is all about.

When was the last time you saw kids play football in a field not dedicated to it, watched over by adults?
What’s wrong with picking up a slug? A worm? To build a dam in a stream, to fall in and laugh? To find a frog and catch it to have a closer look? Lick a toad? Catch grasshoppers and keep them in a jar? Get bitten by ants?

Yeah, they’ll get up to mischief, all kids do. What’s wrong with sticking a frog through your neighbors letterbox? I did it. My friends did it. My neighbors from back then still remind me of it to this day. "When you were ten, you put a frog in my letterbox," they’d say (Grannies now) and laugh heartily. Then they’d go all wistful and say "I thought you kids were terrible back then. But look at them now. A frog in my letterbox is the least of my worries. These days they just steal the letterbox…"

So here is a word from me to those parents: Take off the leash. Stop being so damned overprotective! Let them have their three pounds of dirt and let them get an immunity to germs. They’ll be happy, exhausted kids at the end of the day. Kids who will remember their childhood with a smile, who won’t get sick with everything. Kids who won’t be hanging around streetcorners, smoking, drinking beer and stealing my granny neighbor’s letterbox.

And if they do wrong… Punish them. Not by taking their internet away, but give them a slap. Teach them manners.
I’m not advocating you beat up children, but a slap has never failed to make me see the error of my ways. Nor did it harm my brother. Or my friends. This whole nonsense about "mustn’t slap a child" has to stop. Sorry, if you’ve done wrong, then the punishment has to be there. Today those kids know if their parent lifts a hand against them, they can run to the police and scream child abuse. And the parents know it too.

That’s just wrong on so many levels. It’s wrong because those kids have no respect for their parents, and the reason for it is that the punishment the parents are allowed to dole out are so negligable, the kids don’t respect the punishment either.

It has to change or we’re headed for disaster.

But again, part of the problem here is that those kids who get out of hand do so because they have no outlet for their energy.

So yeah, take off the leash. Do it. I dare ya.

Tags: Childhood, Kids, Overprotective Parents