Longing for a simpler time…and bubble wrap.

Kaitlyn went roller skating today with her daycare class. This week is spring break for her school so she’s at daycare all day, which is fun for her because they have special activities planned all week. Today was roller skating. Tomorrow—bungee jumping! Woo hoo! (Just kidding there folks.) So, she left for school today with her Strawberry Shortcake roller skates and her…bike helmet? Really? Jason insisted that she wear her bike helmet today and I initially thought he was being a bit too “helicopter parent”. Who wears a HELMET rollerskating? Uh, everyone? It’s 2009. Hello? We wear helmets and knee pads and elbow pads for everything now. I never had a bike helmet, let alone knee pads or elbow pads. If I did, I certainly didn’t wear them. Please, I’d look stupid, Mom! Think back to when you were a kid, did you wear a bike helmet? Knee/elbow pads? Sunscreen!? Wow. I miss the 80s.

I miss being able to play outside all day and night only to come home when it got dark or when the street lights came on. I miss Kool-Aid stains and snow cones. I remember spending summer days outside, in the DIRT, building forts with my neighbors and sister. I remember running under the clown sprinkler with the hat that rose higher and higher with the water pressure.

I remember the Slip-N-Slide that didn’t have that inflatable dam at the end of it so you would stop. I especially remember swimming all day long and not worrying about sunscreen or staying out of the sun between 10 and 2. I remember laying out on the grass listening to Cyndi Lauper on my boombox and working on my tan (that reminds me, I better get that mole checked… ha).

Now, it’s all about being safe. Slather on the sunscreen, load up with the bike helmet and the necessary appendage padding, and gingerly ride down to the end of the street but only to the end of the street because that’s as far as my GPS locator will go (just kidding on that one). I’ve said many times before that if I could make a suit out of bubble wrap for my kids, I would totally do it. And it would be pink. I am all for staying safe and Lord knows the world is just not as safe as it used to be. I almost always take the safe route with them—checking their sunscreen coverage, making sure their Halloween candy isn’t spiked with nails, etc. You know, the usual stuff. But it would be nice to just be carefree and hit the beach all day, ride bikes as fast as you can, stay out til the street lights went on, and drink full-sugar Kool-Aid and eat Twinkies. Sigh.