The following comments are priceless.

They were sent to me from my brother, who received them in an email. Check them out and see if they apply to you. Above all, take time to think and appreciate:First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored, lead-based paints.We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets. When we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight ... why? Because we were always outside playing....that's why!We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OK.We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problemWe did not have Playstations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.We had friends, and we went outside and found them!We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!Yet, these generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.If you are one of them, congratulations!You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as children before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.While you are at it, forward it to your children so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.And yes, we ran through the house with scissors.But we're still here.