"Beelzebub, has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me..."

Crabda. That's hello in monkey dutch. What has my posse been up to? Don't answer, I really don't care. I have too much on my plate to be dealin' with your crap. Besides, what I have to talk about is always more interesting then what you have to say. Right? C'mon, right?

Anyway. Dealing with my son the last couple weeks has really scared the hell out of me regarding the future of the planet. I don't think of things in terms of cities, states, or countries. They way I see it, there are stupid people everywhere. We're all fucked. But what I mean is, we are raising a very pathetic generation.

Now before you start calling me a crabby old man, hear me out. When we were growing up, our parents called us lazy slackers. Well, they were right, compared to their generation. But their parents told them the same thing, and in comparison they were right too. Each generation has it easier than previous ones mainly due to technology. We don't have to raise our own food, we go to the store down the street. We don't walk five miles to school (in three feet of snow, up hill both ways), we drive. The Internet, cell phones, digital cable among other advances, bring the world to us. These are good things. The problem is, we stopped making things better, now we're just making things easier. I like doing stuff the easy way too, but at what cost.

But the point I'm getting at is more physical. With society growing as rapidly as it is, it makes sense to make things easier when you can. Canned foods last longer than fresh. Instant rice saves time. Fast food restaurants help the family with no time to cook. Caffeinated drinks allow us to work longer. The problem is, these things wreck your body. Too much fat, too many calories, too much sodium.

So what do we do? We get back to being healthy. Our parents didn't see the health risks when these advances were made. But we do. So to raise our kids healthier, we cut out as many of these things as possible. More organic, less processed. These are good things, to a point.

When we were growing up, how many kids did you know that were allergic to peanuts? How many were allergic to gluten? Remember the kids in grade school that weren't allowed to have candy or sweets? Were they the bullies, or the ones that were picked on? How about that kid that wasn't allowed to watch TV?

What I'm getting at is, we try to protect our kids from everything. Me included. I realize the world has changed. I don't let my kids roam the neighborhood like we did. I don't let them ride in the back of a pick up. Too many bad people out there, too many cars on the road. These are unfortunate changes we made but we had to.

But what I'm talking about is the bubble some people put there kids in. They watch Dateline and Oprah and the nightly news and scare themselves to death. If these shows tell you something is bad, we stop right away without a second thought. Think about it. How many times did we hear eggs are bad for you? The next year, good. Bad the next. We keep limiting our kids from consuming these bad items in hope of keeping the healthy. We should. But some just go too far.

These over protected healthy kids are always sick. They are weak. They can perform athletics at a high level, but can't do physical labor. They are more technically advanced then any previous generation but haven't the capability to work with their hands. They are always at the allergy clinic being told what they need to avoid next.

What brings on this rant was my son. Good looking kid, very fit. Or is he? Playing with the dog the other day, he stepped in a hole and twisted his ankle. Now, I have done this many times over the years. It hurts, I'm not saying it doesn't. It also doesn't have to do with your diet or conditioning. Athletes as well as lazy people do it. But what I'm bringing up is the difference mine and my sons generation deals with a minor injury. When I would twist my ankle, I would roll around on the ground in pain, maybe even cry, and limp around for the next few days. My parents would only know about it if they were either there or saw me limp. I wouldn't mention it. There was nothing they could do other then tell me to 'walk it off'. My son wanted to call the doctor, go to the hospital, get it x-rayed. A twisted ankle. This happened a week ago. I'm still hearing about it.

There needs to be a happy median. We need to protect our kids but not to the level of making them wimps. This isn't a macho rant, just a call for sanity. Man up people, woman up too.

I have to rap this up. I need to go smack my daughter so she toughens up.

hasta.

p.s. Tell me where you think we went to far, or the level of wimpyness you see.