I keep hearing commercials on the radio for JUUL. In case you are unaware, Juul is a vaping tool. Like cigarettes but way more techie. You have to plug them in and charge them, put flavored pods in etc. Just seems like a lot of work. But the weird thing is, I thought you could no longer advertise cigarettes or any tobacco product on TV or radio since the 70’s and early 80’s.
Sometime in the late 90’s when cigarettes were being banned in public restaurants, buildings, bars, malls etc… there seemed to be a huge decline in smoking. It was becoming taboo. If someone saw you smoking you were tattooed with the scarlet letter and forced into exile until you were smoke free. Even then you were still an outcast. My how things have changed.
Now there are vape products like Juul and others that ARE advertising. They have different flavors etc. And now smoking/vaping is now back on the rise. If you think your kid isn’t doing it? HA. But think back to your childhood. I remember we had smoking patios and sections at SCHOOL! You could smoke during break and even if you didn’t you smelled like a cigarette when you got home. Now, schools are hunting down these kids like they are selling meth. Big difference from our day.
I do have to admit I have not tried the Juul or any product like it. I imagine it would be like sucking on a magic marker. Why can’t kids just get high smelling glue, markers and gasoline like we did in the good old days?
Then when I think about it, kids today do not have the life experiences we had. We rode bikes without helmets, rode in cars without seatbelts, read books that are banned in libraries today and God forbid kids wander around till dusk without texting the parental units where they are every 10 minutes. (I am the Queen of run-on sentences).
How did we survive?
I should be dead by now. And so should half my friend group of yesteryear. I am sure our memories are not completely accurate from those days but pretty near close. We didn’t worry about laced drinks or pot. We never heard of meth. And we often bought our parents cigarettes and beer while they waited in the car for us. Now I can’t get my kids to go in and get milk. Their texting me pictures of different milks and asking questions and by the time they get it right I could have been there, bought the milk and got a pedicure before they made it back to the car.
Roaming the streets of our neighborhoods and playing kick-the-can while cussing and drinking cola straight out of the bottle and sharing it with all the kids was what we did all day. Our parents didn’t care where we were. Just avoid the house where the pedophile lives and all will be good. Now, you have to worry about people snatching kids from bus stops and teens walking out to their cars from the mall getting car-jacked or worse. The world is getting really messed up for the next generations. I remember the thing that scared me the most was the possibility there would be world war III. That would be soon according to the news. We would all die horrible deaths. We even watched the movie “The Day After” or something like that, at school! Kids today have way more things to be afraid of. Like just going to school. Will I get shot and killed at school today?
Part of the problem is we are forcing kids in school to be concerned with way more than they are emotional or age appropriately able to handle and understand. I wish kids today could just go to school, learn something and not have to “worry” about stuff. Or not worry as much. We can’t go backwards, I know. Maybe the world is changing too fast.
So turn off the TV. Let them be bored. Send them away to summer camp. Hell, send them to boarding school. (FYI, I tried to find a kindergarten boarding school when my kids were young but apparently that makes you a bad mom). Pray your kids can handle life, and if not, be there for them. You may need a lot more cocktails these days raising kids. Remember back in the 60’s and 70’s moms did a little valium here and there to get through your childhood? If you don’t think your mom did valium, they were often disguised as Tupperware parties or Bridge meetings. (Card game).
Just saying. Slow it all down and breathe. Life shouldn’t have to be a crap-shoot for kids.
Cheers Y’all
