...to be fed up to the back teeth with the "new rules" for everything?

[aurynne]

In a matter of 2-3 decades we have gone from one extreme to the other... and I am absolutely fed up with patronizing know-it-alls interfering in how you live your life. Examples:

• In the 70s, pregnant women smoked, drank alcohol and ate everything they wanted. Today you will be crucified if you so much as dare to drink a sip of wine at any stage of your pregnancy. A smoke will make you an immediate candidate for the capital punishment.

• Back then parents, teachers, policemen and priests would frequently slap, and even beat up, the children in their care. My dad had his ears ripped by a particularly nasty teacher at his school when he was little. Today, in many countries, you risk going to jail if you as much as smack your child's bottom after he tries to set an elderly lady on fire.

• In yesteryears kids would go out and wouldn't turn up until dinner time. In the meanwhile, they would climb trees, throw stones at one another, get into fights, tease dangerous dogs, and take any risk under the sun. Today schools don't organize trips anymore, God forbids a child grazes their knee or gets a bruise. Children are not allowed outside of the house anymore. Some schools even report parents that allow their children to walk to school on their own.

• In those good old times, dogs and cats were possessions, not pets. Dogs would spend their whole life chained to a tiny kennel, would have no exercise, would be kicked and beaten up with no hope of an Animal Protection Law to defend them. Last week I got verbally abused by a woman for mentioning that some days I don't give my dog a walk. According to her, that is inexcusable and I should have my dog taken away, as daily exercise is crucial to a dog's development. I replied that it is also crucial to human development, and I frequently spend days at home, and so far I don't suffer from any developmental disability.

Is it me or we are going from one extreme to the opposite one in all sort of rules? Why can't we just use common sense? Political correctedness and the sense of entitlement that some people (for some reason, I find it is always other women) seem to feel about telling you what to do with your life is completely ruining some aspects of our lives.

AIBU?

YABVU.

But then I suspect this is intended to be a wind up?

YABU. And also you misunderstand what the term 'political correctness' means. Also, 'nuanced debate'.

arf at political correctedness d'ya think it'll catch on?

meanwhile have a

Right... please consider that English is my second language, and I may not have grasped that "political correctedness" was not the right term to be used here. My sincerest apologies for that mistake. I am sure you all could express yourselves much better in a second language, which I assume you all can speak to perfection ;). Can we move on to the main content in the message now?

Right... please consider that English is my second language, and I may not have grasped that "political correctedness" was not the right term to be used here. My sincerest apologies for that mistake. I am sure you all could express yourselves much better in a second language, which I assume you all can speak to perfection ;). Can we move on to the main content in the message now?

YA(still)BVVU, but as this is a windup (in a foreign language to you too! well done!), that is fine, and indeed, expected.

It was never intended as a wind up, and my feeling of frustration at the new ways and the complete lack of a middle-"common sense"-point is very real. But there's nothing I can do about people considering it a wind up.

so you want children slapped by people they trust and putting themselves in risky situaions, dogs neglected, and pg women smoking like chimneys and not taking any notice of the guidance (yes, it is!) to keep their unborn babies healthy.

You do what you like but leave your children (born or unborn) and pets out of it.

StealthPolarBear... I really must be expressing myself badly today... No, I am comparing old ways which were appalling with new ways that have gone the other way and become too exaggerated.

oh i see
you want a middle common sense way
i think that's what most of us are trying to achieve too. But without research and guidance to tell us what happens in different scenarios we aren't really making an informed choice. Do you think all those heavy smokers of the 60s and 70s would still choose to put their unborn child through it?

sigh, those halcyon days, when all you could hear all the live-long day was the sound of children and animals being beaten, kids throwing stones at each other, and pregnant women swilling vodka (and valium) down their necks at breakfast time.

It was all just common sense, with no-one telling anyone what to do..

OK
OP, your OP does come across as hysterical "you risk going to jail if you as much as smack your child's bottom after he tries to set an elderly lady on fire", but I see what you're trying to say now.
Personally I don't think it can ever be a bad thing that we have all of the information (and I don;t mean the DM scare stories) and that recommendations are made based on these - few people have time to read through all the research on smoking/drinking/child development etc and we may struggle in the interpretation. However once guidelines have been set they can be seen by some as "law" - in fact sometimes they become law. How do you feel about the seatbelt law?

Have a

How long have you been in the UK if English is your second language but you remember back to the 1970's?

You do not risk going to jail if you smack your child on the bottom in that context. It is not illegal to smack a child on the bottom if you are their parent and you are trying to parent them.

I think its called progress.
Thank fuck for that.

You are mad.

No-one has ever been crucified for drinking in pregnancy. People have been informed of the research done regarding safe alcohol levels and fetal alcohol syndrome. Giving people informationis is not the same as being patronised by no it alls.

You do not go to jail for spanking a child on the bottom. You may go to jail for assault on any person. That has always been the case, assault is not a new charge under the law.

Children still go out and play and go on school trips. They are allowed out of the house. They are encouraged to walk to school. They get cuts and grazes just as easily now as they did in the 70s.

Its a good thing that laws are in place to stop animal cruelty. How is it better to be tied up all day and kicked. Women used to be regarded as possesions too remember. Do you really want to go back to that?

What specific aspects of your life are ruined by recieving sound medical advice and being protected by the law from assault and being controlled as a possesion?

YANBU - you are being quite witty and tongue in cheek, actually.

OP is not being hysterical, she is talking about extremes. And neither does she want to go back to the ways of the 70's - just pointing out that a sensible happy medium would be a good thing. Which I agree with.

Plus, OPs English is excellent - stop being picky!

Aurynne, I wasn't attacking your English at all. I'm saying that

a) laws forbidding corporal punishment and ensuring OH&S rules are not 'political correctness'
b) The idea that once upon a time we could do whatever we want and now we are crucified if we do anything is ridiculous scaremongering (see "nuanced debate")

c) You want a middle way - between two extremes that have never existed. Congratulations. You will be happy to learn that it exists. It's called Actual Reality.

Op - why not try posting on the Daily Mail forums - you will be much happier there I am sure, there will be lots of other people that spout the same shite as you.

HTH

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Is your First Language Welsh?

Do you write for the Daily Mail or did you just lift the article direct?

Also, I think a dog SHOULD be walked every day.

YABU

'schools don't organise trips anymore'. Really?

Looks like you are exaggerating quite a lot in places to me. In both decades.

about to go on a school (well preschool) trip today!

If it's a choice between the new rules and the old rules, then I prefer the new ones.
YABU.