Today’s parents have a lot to worry about, it seems. There’s screen time, and booster seats, and bicycle helmets. You can’t let kids have too much screen time, but when they get to kindergarten, they have to take their tests with a screen, so they’d better know how to use it. The bicycle helmets have to fit just right. And so do the booster seats.
And these days you have to slather your kids in sunscreen all the time. Evidently you are a terrible parent if you don’t. But it’s not just any sunscreen. Because nowadays we know that certain kinds of sunscreen cause cancer. So we have to get the right kind of sun screen.
And as the kids get older, you have to worry about social media. I’m thinking about taking Bobby Boucher’s mama”s approach. “Social media is de debil.” I worked as a middle school counselor, and I can assure you it is true.
When I was a kid, we didn’t sit in car seats. We didn’t wear bicycle helmets, and we didn’t wear sunscreen. And you should do all. those. things. They make your kids safer. But we didn’t know any better. We walked outside in the morning, and we showed back up around lunch time for a sandwich. We left again and we showed back up for supper.
If my dad needed us, he put the tip of his tongue against his front teeth for a whistle that could be heard for a mile. And we’d come running. By some miracle, we survived (so far).
Well, I’m feeling like a real heel today, and, obviously, I’m a terrible parent. Because I didn’t put sunscreen on Noah when we went to the pool. I didn’t think we’d be out there for long, and we’ve been working up our sun tolerance.
So, did I say all that just to show you Noah got sunburned? I did. But you know what? He loves the pool, and he’s still full of joy. And next time, we’ll use sunscreen.
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