Are you over 30?

Congratulations to all the kids who were born in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese and raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from the can, and didn't get tested for diabetes and cervical cancer.

Then, after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with brightly-coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, and lets not even get started on the risks we took hitchhiking everywhere!

As kids we were taken everywhere in cars with no child seats, seat belts or air bags, and riding in the back of an open truck on a warm day was a special treat.

We drank water straight from a tap or a garden hose, and never from a bottle.

Take away food meant fish and chips - no pizza shops, MacDonalds, KFC, Burger Kings or Subway.

Even though the shops were all closed at 5.30pm and didn't open on weekends or bank holidays, somehow we didn't starve to death.

We'd share one bottle of soft drink with four friends, all drinking from that one bottle, and no-one ever actually died from doing this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread with real butter, and drank sugar-laden soft drinks, but we were never overweight because...

We were always outside running around                 and playing!

We would leave home in the morning and play outside all day, as long as we were back before the  streetlights came on.

No-one knew where we were or could contact us all day; and we were OK.

We spent hours building go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We build tree houses and played in rivers with lead-painted toy cars and soldiers.

We didn't have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games, no videotaped films, no CDs, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers an no internet. we had flesh and blood friends and we went outside and played with them.

We fell out of trees, broke bones and knocked out teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We made mud pies from dirt, experimented with eating worms and insects, and they did not live inside us for ever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter.

In December there was only one festive holiday - Christmas, and everyone wished each other Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays - and you could take it or leave it.

We were given air rifles and catapults for our 10th birthday, and drank radioactive milk from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the Americans' atomic bomb tests in the 50s.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house, and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just shouted for them to come and play.

Rugby, football, netball and cricket teams had tryouts, and not everyone got on the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Getting into the team was based on merit, not blackmail, corruption, threats from parents or guilt about the past.

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather and straps and bullies always ruled in the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like Kiora, Blade, Brooklyn and Vanilla.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem-solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 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're over 30, you are one of that generation.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to discuss this with others who have had the luck to grow up as real kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives, apparently for our own good.

And while you're at it, why not show it to your kids, so they'll know how brave their parents were.

Note - the large font is because I know what your eyes must be like at our age!