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On being unwholesome — 12 Comments

    • Welcome Curmudgeon!

      That is bordering on the pathetic.  It's no wonder modern yoof are growing up to be weak kneed wimps who kow tow to the Church of Good Health and Righteousness.  No fucking backbone.

  1. I had a conversation recently about how the pinch mouthed puritans are all deeply concerned that kids are going to take up vaping and become "filthy nicotine addicts" , having been young myself once, (not so long ago that I've forgotten what it felt like), and having brought up a beautiful daughter through the teen years, I actually did laugh out loud at this most pompous of arguments. If my own daughter had taken up vaping, I would have been bloody relieved. As it was she did her share of experimenting with various substances and activities, most of which I knew about, a few I didn't want to know about, and she survived just fine, she matured, and most of the experiments remained just that, experiments. 

    In the real world, most parents should be more worried about their kids joining the cult of healthism and becoming boring old twats before they turn 20. Scared of getting a whiff of tobacco smoke or vapour because they believe they will drop dead the next day from lung cancer. 

    I also had my share of wild times, some I remember fondly, some not so fondly, but I also survived . Maybe kids today really are as soft as some parents think they are?

    • As Curmudgeon says, a unit is considerably less than a pint, GD. Six pints is fairly respectable.

      I never went to college or uni, having left school at the tender age of sixteen, but I certainly earned my stripes on the drink and drugs consumption scale post-school (actually, I started at about fourteen) course. I believe I did rather well, managing a degree of excess that few could match.

      Like you, Jude, I saw daughters (two) through the teenage years. The older of the two was the wild one, and going to those 'parent – teacher' evenings was a bloody nightmare. The problem was situations like:

      Teacher: "Your daughter was caught smoking dope with the boys down the end of the playing fields!!!"

      Me: "And?"

      T: "Well, I thought you should know so you can take steps."

      Me: "Ah" (Thinks: What fucking steps? If she's gonna smoke dope, she's gonna smoke dope. If I make a fuss about it, she's going to stop telling me what she's doing, and that's worse than her smoking a little dope. And anyway, she knows I like a smoke and hypocrisy was never a forte of mine.")

      T: "And she's confrontational and disruptive in class."

      Me: "Ah." (Thinks: Fucking tell me about it. Do you have a bloody-minded teenage daughter who knows it all?)

      Etc etc

      I used to try and get out of going to them, but never managed to.

      Younger daughter on the other hand was brilliant at school and always top of the class, so I didn't mind so much going to her parent – teacher meetings, coward that I am. 🙂

      As an addendum, older daughter is now a mother to two sons, and a brilliant mum. Brings the boys up in a sensible, no-nonsense fashion. They are well adjusted and happy. Successful in her chosen career too. Younger daughter is just finishing her Master's deg in International law, having done Arabic for her Bachelor's.

      It pays to keep the communications channels open. Both my daughters are also my best friends. God forbid that they were healthist drones; I would consider that a total parenthood failure.

      • lol, the parent/teacher nights, eeeeekkk. My daughter was always strong willed, like her Mum, so these nights were best avoided where possible. I was a very young mother, so in some ways I didn't have all the years of brainwashing that many older parents get these days, it was hard enough just trying to survive, put a roof over our heads, and food on the table. (I was a single Mum so did this on my own). 

        My daughter grew up to be a strong, adaptable, intelligent adult, with a whole lot of common sense. She is now my dearest friend. I totally agree with keeping the communication channels open, even when what she told me was not always what I wanted to hear. I didn't judge her, just guided her the best way I knew how. 

        My daughter is happy, healthy, and I have two wonderful grandkids, and a kind, generous and non-judgemental person, so all in all, my 'flying by the seat of my pants' method of parenting, has been successful. That's about all we can hope for. 

  2. As a young man in the early 1960's.  I am sorry to confess that I never tried any drugs, but that did not seem to matter with the women…I remember endless nights in the "Jolley Sailor", playing poker or other card games and drinking at least ten pints of good cider before walking 2 miles home.  Such innocent pleasures.  If only I could do that now…

  3. Yes, did electronics too. I still have lecture notes somewhere that trail off into scribble, then nothing, due to nodding off after too much of most of the same things.
    Happy days – I think, so far as I can remember…

    • I did four years studying the thermionic valve and its variants.  Towards the end they threw in a few lessons on the transistor and solid state.  Needless to say I then entered a market where the thermionic valve was becoming a museum piece and nearly everything was solid state.  I would have said the four years were wasted except for the "extracurricular" activities.

  4. Like BD I am sorry to confess that I too never dabbled in drugs at all in those days. In my defense though I did do my best to make up for this deficiency in terms of beer and cigarettes. Then came the years of nappies, feeding times, minding, educating and nurturing and I smoked and beer-ed my way through it all as I provided for the four of us.

     

    Today, I am ashamed to have to tell you, my ungrateful off-springs are qualified adults who never gave us a day's worry in their lives, and neither of the blind bastards either drink of smoke. Did they take no notice of me? My years of bad example have been wasted. I have no precious children to drive Dad to the pub and sit with him as he rambles on with his stories and jokes. Talk about a wasted life! 

     

    The only way I can deal with the rejection now is to sit and brood with a few pints.

    • That sounds too familiar.  However the grandkids are coming to an age where I can teach them the path of truth and light.  Heh!

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