Today is Alex's Birthday

Well, here we are - the 18th December - and he is 7. Despite everything, despite his over opinionated views on lots, and despite the fact that he is far, far too intelligent and has an unnerving ability to work things out, he is 7 today and although i moan and groan about all he does and says he is "my middle child" and i remain proud of him and all he does. We do quite often have lots of laughs together and he is very ticklish - especially when i am driving!!!

And so the rant - can we remember being 7? how different were things then? did we not in the early 80's have so much more freedom and was the world really safer, or did our parents have different expectations and we (at 7) were not aware of the bad world around us, whilst at the same time the media hype was so much less that we didn't really follow much anyway.

At 7 life revolved around bikes, the local park, hide and seek and the river Thames at the end of the road. Our biggest decision would have been sausages or fishfingers, if we got a choice, and our Christmas lists would have had stuff like Lego and Action Man on, and not computers and GameBoys. Also Wagon Wheel biscuits were bigger!!

So the question is, has life really changed (for better or worse), or were we just protected from the bad things as we protect our children? Were our expectations for gifts as stressful to our parents then as our childrens wants are to us now? Was Christmas as much of a worry as it is now?

You can't help thinking that maybe we had rose coloured glasses and our parents protected us. In 20-30 years time will our children say the same as us and will their children expect that much more like no doubt ours do now?? Will Wagon Wheel biscuits be smaller still??!!!

We protect our children and nuture their views. We may shout at them, we may get frustrated by them, they may now how to really wind us up, however, they are still our children and nothing will change that and the basic fact, that actually, and i know from my own thoughts, that really if the truth be known we are probably not wound up by them, instead we are all scared for their future and what this holds for them to deliver upon, in much the same way that our own parents felt way back when we were 7.

I am now late 30's, i only wish i realized this a long while ago and acted upon it then. So to my Mother i thank you for everything that i always believed was stupid, interfering or whatever and thank you to my Late Father who was probably in his own way backing up my Mother even after they split up. I can only hope my children say the same sort of thing in 20 years time!!!

Let me know any thoughts that you may also have..............