My Kids Will Never Understand the Struggle

I try to be fair to my children and never utter stories that go something like this:

“I walked to school through three feet high snowdrifts.” 

Or 

“In my day, if you wanted to buy a treat you had to earn it by detasseling corn in muddy fields or pulling weeds from mosquito-infested soybeans.”

I sauntered to a school that was across the street from my house or else I rode the bus. I worked in an air-conditioned grocery store with some of my best friends. I will never receive any honors for overcoming youth hardships because I had it pretty great. However, there were still some struggles that my generation faced. And kids nowadays will never, ever understand. Cue the violin, because the struggle is real and worth an eye roll or two.

Long Lines at an Amusement Park

I try to teach and practice patience with my children. It is a hard concept when young ones hardly ever have to wait for anything. This is so true when it comes to amusement park rides. My summer memories from childhood include lots of hours spent traveling to a fun place only to spend the majority of our day in long lines. Be it Disney World, the county fair, or Worlds of Fun there were always people waiting to get on rides.

Then and Now

During the 80’s and 90’s there were no timers flashing to let you know how long of a wait was anticipated. My children balk at the idea of standing somewhere for more than 15 minutes when I recall waiting hour to board a train car for Thunder Mountain at Disney. There was also no entertainment for those trudging along the walkways to the rides. Nowadays, half of the fun is waiting in the line at big parks. Harry Potter’s Escape from Gringotts Ride at Universal Studios is amazing with J.K. Rowling influenced designs, complete with goblins, to stare at as you saunter.

As a child I waited 48 minutes for the crazy fast wooden roller coaster known as the Timber Wolf at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. I barely made the height minimum to ride. It was a sticky, gross day filled with sunburn potential. Nothing to see except wood planks and the back of my brother’s flat-top hairdo. It took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get on the ride.

So long in fact that I forgot it was going to be scary. Approximately halfway through the first incline, my pre-teen self told my dad I no longer wanted to ride and proceeded to scream and bawl throughout the 53mph maximum speeds. When it finished, I was a blubbering mess but had to suck it up because my brother wanted to go on the Oriental Express and that line was even longer. 

Less Waiting

Trips to big-ticket amusement parks are easier because everything has a fast pass, or a magical band, or an express ticket that allows people to virtually get in line and never have to wait too long to experience a thrill. Yet, even at Disney World, my kids can find a way to complain about an eight-minute Space Mountain wait or Winnie the Pooh looking too big in real-life. 

Young Adult and Juvenile Fiction

I know I am always raving about novels, but the bookworm in me never rests. Plus if you ask any educator on the planet, he or she will say that reading is a vital key to learning. 

When I was younger, my town did not have a public library and there was a teeny, tiny bookmobile that came around on a scheduled basis. I loved the bookmobile, but the reading selection was sub-par. My small catholic school had a library, but the reading options were lackluster. It was like Dr. Suess and then the Bible, that was pretty much it. Okay, it was not quite that bad but trust me there was no Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Lunar Chronicles, Dog Man, or Big Nate. 

So Many Book Options

The fiction and non-fiction aimed towards young readers in today’s market are phenomenal. I look back and feel like my only choices were The Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High. What was out there for my brothers?

Thank goodness for Encyclopedia Brown because I was a mystery lover. Judy Blume was great too. I reread her books so much that most of the paperbacks were missing covers and page numbers. Superfudge is a classic, but my teenage self would have loved the heck out of the current bestseller list: The Twilight Series and The Princess Diaries. Instead, I was reading A Time to Kill by John Grisham. Which is fine, but maturity-wise the rape and revenge murder plots were probably not meant for my sixth-grade demographic. 

Libraries currently have entire wings devoted to specific genres and children can read from electronic devices or listen to a multitude of audiobooks. My “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret” reading self is jealous of the books my children can get their hands on nowadays.

Car Travel

Another excruciating thing from my childhood is that car rides took forever. My grandparents lived a half an hour from us and I felt every single one of those 1800 seconds sandwiched between my brothers in the backseat. I would try to read, but it was hard to focus with everybody yelling, talking, touching, and breathing too loud…you know? 

We had no screens. The AM/FM radio was controlled by my parents. No one in our family would be considered a musical savant so there was little encouragement to sing along to the station’s tunes. Big road trips were just brutal extensions of the 30-minute rides we took frequently to grandma and grandpa’s house. 

Road Trips Made Easy

My youngsters have it so good. For car travel over an hour, my children get to watch movies, look at iPads or read e-books from a smartphone while en route to our destination. Yet, they all still ask silly questions like “Are we there yet?” and “How much longer?” If I didn’t love them so much, I would pull the vehicle over and go ballistic. Seriously! How can they not understand that they have it so easy and comfortable?

The Struggle is Real

As Tessa wrote about last week, kids just don’t get it. However, on the bright side we parents do understand the struggle and it makes us appreciative of all the conveniences. It also gives us opportunities to lay it on thick whenever our children think they have it rough.

This is a parent’s right, right?