I grew up in a very different time. The time when Pluto was a planet and Cookie Monster was Cookie Monster, not Veggie Monster. The time before the Bubble Children. Let me just say that I am not that old, but in the last two decades, childhood has changed A LOT.  And not for the better. We are raising a generation of children who are used to being surrounded by a protective bubble at all times, children who cannot deal with reality, who have no sense of imagination and were never given the chance to test themselves, find their limits and really have good, old fashioned fun.

Nowadays, parents are ready to sue over the slightest mishap on the playground. Playground equipment is being removed for fear of said lawsuits. When I younger and attending daycare,  my daycare had a tree fort, a tire swing and a figure eight paved track for riding bicycles around. If I were to revisit my old daycare today, all of this would be gone. The tire swing was removed because someone could fall off and hurt themselves, the tree fort was removed because someone could be playing on it inappropriately, fall off and hurt themselves and the bicycles are gone because some could, you guessed it, fall off and hurt themselves. Let me just say that I played on all of that equipment for many years and do you know how many times I fell off and hurt myself? More than I can count! But guess what? That is all part of the learning process. You only do something stupid once or twice before you learn from your mistake. This learning process teaches children the process of trial and error and lets them build themselves up to learn in the real world.

These children have been so coveted, so protected from the world that they have a huge sense of entitlement. They expect everyone else to ‘hop-to’ for them, for everyone else to do whatever it takes to make them happy. If something goes wrong, it’s never their fault! There is always someone else to blame, someone else to sue.  People are now suing McDonalds if they get fat and a lot of other crazy lawsuits. If you really feel the need to sue anyone for your present predicament, sue your parents! They clearly raised you to feel no responsibility for your own actions and to always point the finger in someone else’s direction.

Children need to be given the chance to be kids. They need to play, to rough-house, and yes, to fall. Because only if they fall will they learn to pick themselves back up. If we continue to raise bubble children, the world outlook is going to have a drastic turn around in the next decade or so.