My granddaughters get on to me all the time for being overly protective. It is because when you get older (like I am) you have visions of all the things that could go wrong. Mostly these concerns are based on things that happened to me (ha) as a kid. I probably had more stitches than a sewing machine and more mishaps than the All State commercial.

It amazes me sometimes that any of us lived through the 60’s and 70’s. No seat belts, no bike helmets, no anti-lock brakes, no airbags, toys that could kill or maim you, no cell phones to stay in contact and the list could go for pages etc. In the summer I would leave home in the morning on my bike (riding on the main roads) be building a tree house five miles from home 20 feet in the air with three 2×4’s and five nails. We played full contact football with no pads or helmets, rode skateboards backwards down steep hills and felt good if there was a little blood on our shirts. Went swimming in the river (wide and fast flowing) with no supervision. It’s just amazing we did not break our neck, have brain injuries or drown. We simply did not know the risks that everyone understands today. As long as I came home for dinner, my mom had no idea what we were doing. ha

I could tell you some pf the dumb things I did as a boy but and teenager, but it might make you think less of me. We just lived life in the most simple and innocent way you could. There wasn’t video games. social media and the internet, yet we lived life rather than sharing it on Facebook. Sometimes the best “likes” are analog, meaning we were there in the moment not watching other people’s moments. We lived it and somehow lived through it.

Much to my granddaughters’ chagrin, I will always be overly protective when they are with me to keep them from harms way as much as I can. Maybe when they are grown, they won’t have as many healed body injuries as me. Ha. KT