According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s or even early '80s, probably shouldn't have survived:

Our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paint!

We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.

Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking ...

As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle!

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from it.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day... as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. If you wanted to call your children home for dinner you went outside and shouted their names. No cell phones. Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo,64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers or internet chat rooms.

We had friends and we went outside and found them.

We played cricket with golf balls and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, gut cut and broke bones and teeth... and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. After all they were accidents and no one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other, got black and blue and learned to get over it. The next day we would be friends again anyway.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke any eyes out.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everybody made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Parents didn't shout abuse at the coaches.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

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

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility ? and we learned how to deal with it.