Age of P-F members?

[rob_s]

One funny thing I've noticed about the kids (once they can walk and shit and talk on their own without making too much of a mess or running a higher than average chance of dying) is that when you turn off the internet they simply find something else to do.

It's like fucking magic.

I have a "mesh" network at home and I have a "kids off" button that turns off the internet to all of their devices. It's pretty fantastic to hit that button and literally see them just get up and go outside, or go find a book, or get out their art supplies.

Who'd have thought?!?!

I see (and know quite well) a lot of parents that can't seem to understand that the kids aren't going to catch on fire, or set something on fire, with 5 minutes of inattention. Frankly, they NEED inattention more than attention in many cases.

[RJ]

...the kids aren't going to catch on fire, or set something on fire, with 5 minutes of inattention.

You, obviously, never met my mother. My most memorable moment was miswiring a Heathkit with 120VAC across a rectifier bridge of 100uF tantalum capacitors. House reeked for 24 hours.

[Borderland]

My dad had this thing for sharp pocket knives. When I was about seven he gave me his to whittle on a stick. I put a serious laceration on my thigh about 4" long. It looked pretty damn serious with lots of blood and my mom freaked out. She said we need to get to the hospital and get some sutures. My dad said we didn't have the money for that and he could take care of it which he did. I think being a WW2 combat vet gave him a different perspective on a lot of things including wounds. I lived but something like that would be considered child abuse today. I really didn't think much about it until I got a physical for the Navy. Doc noticed the scar and made some comment about it. Kids are pretty tough, or can be.

[RJ]

My dad had this thing for sharp pocket knives. When I was about seven he gave me his to whittle on a stick. I put a serious laceration on my thigh about 4" long. It looked pretty damn serious with lots of blood and my mom freaked out. She said we need to get to the hospital and get some sutures. My dad said we didn't have the money for that and he could take care of it which he did. I think being a WW2 combat vet gave him a different perspective on a lot of things including wounds. I lived but something like that would be considered child abuse today. I really didn't think much about it until I got a physical for the Navy. Doc noticed the scar and made some comment about it. Kids are pretty tough, or can be.

This.

I developed a ‘How to teach knife safety” course for my local Council University of Scouting weekend. I used it subsequently with all the parents and kids in our Pack (I was a Cubmaster for 4 years). To be honest the kids were much, much easier to deal with than the Mom’s. First thing I did in class was hand them a band aide, and tell them to put it on - with one hand. That kept them occupied until class started.

[SecondsCount]

You, obviously, never met my mother. My most memorable moment was miswiring a Heathkit with 120VAC across a rectifier bridge of 100uF tantalum capacitors. House reeked for 24 hours.

Hahahaha! Been there, done that. By the time I got to college, I had learned most of those lessons, but I remember the first day in the lab. Lots of popping, hissing, and the smell of electrolytic capacitors wired backwards by my fellow classmates.

[blues]

"Rub some dirt on it."

[Guerrero]

Hahahaha! Been there, done that. By the time I got to college, I had learned most of those lessons, but I remember the first day in the lab. Lots of popping, hissing, and the smell of electrolytic capacitors wired backwards by my fellow classmates.

You released the magic smoke?

[ER_STL]

I’m a Gen X-er who acts like a Gen Z-er and feels like a Boomer.


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[Caballoflaco]

Same. I bounced back and forth between my paternal and maternal grandparents growing up, largely based around the school calendar. When I lived with the "city" grandparents it was bike riding and playing with friends and building bridges across the ditch at the dead end. Except Wednesday, when my best friends had church most of the afternoon, so I played by myself. Saturday mornings were cartoons and a giant fucking bowl of sugar cereal. While with my "country" grandparents there were no other kids and it was too isolated to really go anywhere by foot or bike. I played in the woods alone quite a bit, but also a lot of farm related chores. I was hunting small game by myself when I was about 12. I killed a lot of squirrels with my granddad's Stevens 12g, which I own now. I plinked a lot with a .22 revolver and a tube fed rifle. My uncle has the revolver, I have the rifle.

Growing up like that had definite advantages, not least of which was the wide variety of experiences. I got to see middle class suburbia and I got to see rural poverty, and frankly both have their advantages. I'm glad I didn't have Facebook, meth and job loss hadn't destroyed small towns, there was no 24 hour news cycle to keep you worked up over the crisis of the day, etc. I know it wasn't all "better" then, but I'd not trade it for a childhood today.

I only got to spend a week in the summer and a week around Christmas with my rural grandparents. I was hunting small game at twelve too, though I preferred a .22 rifle since I hated eating around the shot. And while I grew up in a pretty plain suburban neighborhood there was a very large tract of undeveloped land with the headwaters of a small river and a small lake nearby that we spent lots of time exploring. Like you I was lucky to have had a nice balance of experiences growing up.

One of my favorite childhood memories is being eight years old and me and my best friend/neighbor making the five or six mile trek out there for the first time and unbeknownst to our parents. We were well prepared though with a hatchet and knives and canteens and a compass and sandwiches we made without anyone knowing so parents wouldn’t start asking questions anoutto why we needed them. It was pretty rad.

[Darth_Uno]

Millenial here...and by that I mean I'm 30 years old.

My welcome to 30 gift was the most millenial thing possible. A case of COVID-19. It got off to a good start, but that's all over now.

Also, 1980 will always be 20 years ago to me. But apparently that was 2001....

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Imagine how I felt when they played Blink 182 on the classic rock station. I think I just saw them in concert a few years ago. Well, no, a "few" years was actually 20.