Yeah, that blog title got your attention, didn’t it? I know it sounds pretty harsh, but unfortunately, it’s true. Everybody’s kids are going to die. Yours and mine, and everybody in the world’s kids. Just like the rest of us.
But let me explain where I’m going with all of this. I was in an online conversation with a mother who contacted me, absolutely furious because of an incident that happened while they were staying at a campground at Table Rock Lake in Missouri. If you haven’t been there, it’s a beautiful reservoir with great fishing, boating, and camping.
This woman and her family were there in their RV and apparently her four-year-old son picked up a lead fishing sinker. The mother immediately freaked out because she knew her son had contracted lead poisoning. She called paramedics to tell them he had been injured, and she said when they got there they pretty much laughed at her. She said they told her he wasn’t going to die from picking up a sinker, fishermen use them all day long and nobody has died from sinker poisoning yet. Not finding any satisfaction there, she took her child to an emergency room. The intake nurse there told her there was not an issue, but she insisted on seeing a doctor. She said they made her wait nine hours before a doctor finally brushed her off and said if she was concerned, go home and wash his hands. She just can’t believe how many medical professionals are just ignoring her concerns for the child’s safety.
Almost immediately, another woman chimed in to say that her daughter had picked up a goose or duck feather at a campground where they are staying, and she took her to urgent care because she was afraid she might get avian flu. She also got no sympathy. They told her to wash the kid’s hands and get on with her life. That woman said she told her husband they are selling the RV because she will not allow her children to be in an environment where they can be exposed to things like that that could harm them.
You would think these two mothers are extreme cases, but you’d be wrong. I also heard from somebody staying at a campground we have frequented often who was enraged because somebody’s dog took a dump while he was walking it. This man wasn’t upset because the dog owner was one of those clods who just ignore it and kept walking. No, he picked it up in a paper bag and deposited it in a trashcan just like he was supposed to. But the RVer who contacted me was in a tizzy because the ground wasn’t sanitized afterward. He told the pet owner he needed to put bleach or something down on the grass to sanitize it, and when he just laughed at him and walked away, he went to the office insisting something be done. They told him if it was picked up, there was nothing else they could do. He said he tried to explain to them that whatever bits of feces might be left are now going to contaminate the whole area, get into the water system, and spread E. coli to anybody who comes near that part of the campground. When he got no satisfaction, he said he and his wife packed up and left so they would not be exposed to a biohazard like that.
If you are one of those people that are worried about the Russians or the Koreans or whoever blowing us to bits with their nuclear weapons someday, don’t sweat it. They don’t have to. We are raising generations of weak little wimps who will probably die the first time they sneeze and eventually we’ll all be gone anyway.
Kids need to get dirty. Kids need to get cuts and scrapes. Believe it or not, kids need to get sick once in a while. That’s how you build an immune system.
I grew up in a generation that fell off of our bicycles and skinned our elbows and knees and laughed about it so our friends wouldn’t think we were babies. We shared a bottle of soda, drank from the same garden hose, and one friend of mine and I pricked our thumbs with a knife blade and mixed our blood so we could be blood brothers, just like the Indians we saw on the movies did. None of us died from it.
If you’re a parent who loves their child and provides for them, and tries to protect them from life’s evils, God bless you. We all know there are too many parents who don’t. But if you are so overprotective that you want to keep your child in a bubble, you are not doing them any good. Because whether you wrap them in a little cotton cocoon or let them run and play and be kids, either way they’re going to die. Hopefully, not until they have wonderful lives and live to a ripe old age. But it is going to happen. Let them have a normal life until then.
Thought For The Day – Don’t take life so seriously. None of us are getting out alive anyway.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Well said. Thank you.
I love your message. This is so true. The parents of today are doing so much harm to the children. Their creating little whims. The are so protective. They believe their kids over a teacher. I grew up with the good old fashion spanking. I also spanked my kids. “Spare the rod-Spoil the child”
Nick, you are an excellent fiction writer. But, even you couldn’t come up with such far-fetched stories. Sadly, that means these crazy scenarios you share are true.
No wonder health care resources are stretched so thin.
I wish they were fiction, Coleen. We’d all be a lot better off.
What in the world are these people learning in their schools? I taught biology and you can’t imagine the bacteria, etc that are on the bottom of your shoes, or the number of insect parts allowed in such things as flour or oh my, the fact that fish poop in the water or deer poop in the woods.. GOOD GRIEF just how IGNORANT are these people? It’s scary!!!!!!!!!!!!
We see it every weekend. Kids who have meltdowns because they didn’t get sprinkles on their ice cream cone or they want a blue spoon instead of the yellow one we grabbed to put in their bowl of ice cream.
It is scary – the 20 somethings who think the river goes in a circle and the little ones who throw a temper tantrum when they don’t get their own way.
The stories of campground owners can tell……….
They have company, I’m sorry to say. At an RV park in Yuma, I was told by the staff I must be sure my dogs never pee on the gravel. If they do, I have to make up a bottle of bleach water and spray every little spot to sanitize the rocks. Not kidding. I grabbed a bottle of window cleaner and pretended to spray around my rig when I left. Haven’t been back since.
You can’t fix stupid but after that last remark about the park wanting you to sanitize the ground I fear that stupid is taking over.
Lord help us all from the helicopter parents! When I think of how I grew up, and all the kids I knew grew up, playing in the dirt, playing with the calves, chickens, dogs, cats, etc. Playing in the creeks Sometimes actually stepping in chicken or cow manure. Why, according to the parents in your article, none of us should have survived. My own kids played in the dirt, got cuts & scrapes and survived. They were actually pretty healthy & didn’t get sick often. My sister-in-law, on the other hand, kept her kids squeaky clean…bath in the morning, bath at night and maybe in between if they managed to show a little dirt…and it seemed like they were sick all the time.
As I’m reading about the man thinking the ground needed to be sanitized due to the dog pooping there, I’m wondering about all the raccoons, birds, etc. that do their business every second of the day. This guy was a nut!! As a side note, Dennis Hill is ending his blog as of today. He was entertaining and will be missed.
Simply said, :This country is becoming a Cupcake Factory.”
No kidding. I have been tempted from time to time to start a series of books with a backpacker sleuth who solves mysteries while hiking. But people are already frightened enough of the outdoors. I don’t want to contribute to making that worse. Shakes head.
Most children are not fun to be around anymore…that is for sure!! I told my husband today that it is no wonder folks prefer to live in 55+ places!! Our youngest grandkids are already nightmares…never think it gets past Nana however…no…they WILL hear what I have to say about their behavior!! But it is not all their fault either…truly.