How did I ever make it?

When I look at our now over-regulated, over-sanitized and our "thou shall be safe always" society, I often wonder how I ever managed to make it out of childhood (although some would argue that I'm still a kid) alive.

Sunday afternoon was one of those perfect spring days. The weather was warm. The sun was bright. All the leaves had been raked the previous day, so we were free to enjoy the nice weather.

I bundled Natalie up into her stroller to take her for a walk around the Georgian Trail and the St. Vincent Street area. I think of her stroller as Fort Knox for babies. Once she's in there, she can't get out.

She's strapped in. Buckled up. The car seat then clamps down on the stroller - she rides in the car seat until she's big enough to graduate into the larger stroller.

This stroller has clamps, clips, locks and a full braking system. I'm surprised I don't need a license to operate it. It certainly is safe. I don't really remember what kind of stroller I had when I was a baby, but I remember my brother's. It was like a bassinette on wheels. It was this gigantic metal beast of an apparatus. It was so big he slept in it until he was old enough to go into his crib.

After our walk we had friends visit for the afternoon. They had just bought their oldest son a new bike on a shopping trip. I suggested he jump on his brand new bike and take it for a spin up and down the Georgian Trail - which is located right next to our house. His father agreed, but his mother said: "He can't. He doesn't have his helmet with him."

Helmet? You need a helmet to ride a bike? Apparently that's the law now. I remember when I was a kid (I can't believe I just typed that, I'm officially old) I never wore a helmet when I rode my bike and I survived just fine thank you. The whole point of having a bike was to ride it everywhere really fast and see how many stunts we could do before crashing - which we did a lot.

I remember spending entire summer days building jumps to take our bikes over. Concrete steps were always perfect for new jumps. Or if we were really bored, we'd find a grassy hill and just ride down it as fast as possible.

I remember crashing. A lot. But we didn't ever go put a helmet on. We were smart enough on our own to know to be careful to watch out for cars when riding on or near the road. Our stunts were always done away from any motorized traffic. I suppose our parents did a good job of educating us that a bike and kid combo vs. a moving car was a losing proposition.

I think our society has tried to over-regulate fun. A lot of people complain that kids spend too much time indoors playing video games or on the computer. But maybe we all need to look in the mirror.

Maybe outdoor activities are so much of a hassle for kids these days they prefer to stay inside and enjoy their games in peace and quiet.

Remember when the Lion's Club wanted to build children a bike park beside the swimming pool?

We had protests, angry letters to the editor and delegations to council and committees opposing such a project. Some reacted as if the children that were going to come to the bike park were mutants from another planet that must be kept away from Earth.

After seeing the immature reaction from adults about a bike park I couldn't blame a kid for saying: "no thanks, I will stay home and play Super Mario Bros." Oddly enough, the bike park did get built.

I haven't heard a peep of protest about it since. Maybe on this one, the children taught all the adults lessons in maturity and responsibility.