painfully cuteeeeeeeee

Hi Trent! It’s very sweet that you concern about Levi’s arm, but I can assure that it is perfectly okay to pick up babies – who are after all fairly lightweight – by both arms for a short time. My son, who is nearly six (and admittedly not that lightweight any longer) still delights in doing long jumps by holding on to two adults’ hands while walking, and I can assure you it’s definitely more of a strain for said adults than it is for him…

That is the most adorable thing I’ve seen.

@Nettie – it’s very sweet that you are concerned enough to “correct” Trent but, alas, you are indeed wrong and he is right! I know – i’m actually a doctor which i suspect you are not from your obvious (well-intentioned) ignorance…it is actually NOT advised to swing children by their arms/hands since it leads to a common occurrence known as “Nurse Maid’s Elbow” which is a dislocation of the elbow joint in youngsters caused very commonly (and very easily) by traction on the arm in kids….their elbow joints are not as stable as older children’s and adults!
I also can speak personally to it as BOTH of my boys (at ages 4 and 6) experienced nurse maid’s elbow when simply swinging by their hands on playground equipment – that’s all the traction it takes sometimes!
Sometimes the elbow joint will move itself back into position with the proper alignment applied however it often requires a trip to the hospital or pediatrician to get the elbow reset.
I love it when people talk with absolute authority on something they don’t know much about….
Trent! Kuddos to you – you’re right (although it’s a joint issue not a muscle issue…but close enough!)

@ rita – the fact that it hasn’t happened to your kids or your friends’ kids does NOT mean the syndrome does not exist or occur – and, in fact, quite frequently….that same logic applied would mean that the fact that your kids and your friends’ kids haven’t had, just let’s say for example, appendicitis, childhood leukemia or any other one of myriad childhood circumstances/illnesses, must mean they don’t really exist….do yourself a favor and Google Nursemaid elbow and you’ll see for yourself….and BTW you don’t need to “swing them like baseball bats” for it to occur – in fact, just the opposite – it often occurs with only slight traction…
Just sayin…

There’s a solution to all this… duh, stick the kids in a bubble.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1920s, 30s 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s !!

Why????

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We slept on our stomachs and there were no baby alarms in our rooms because they were shared with our brothers and sisters.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts, booster seats or air bags.

When our parents went to the pub for a drink we were left outside with a bag of crisps and no-one abducted us.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was fish and chips or pie and chips. No Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC, Wimpy, or Subway.

We ate meals all together as a family. We all ate the same thing and no-one starved because they couldn’t eat the meal.

Even though all the shops closed at 5.30pm and didn’t open on Sundays, somehow we didn’t starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy fruit Spangles, Love Hearts, Fruit Polos, Palm Toffee, Gob Stoppers and Black Jacks and Flying Saucers.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in them, but we weren’t overweight because……

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

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 down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubby holes and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We explored streams and ponds, woods and abandoned places, and never drowned or got lost.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound. We either had no TV at all or else it was strictly limited to 2 channels and one hour of children’s TV a night.

We had no TVs or Computers in our bedrooms.

We read comics and books and learnt to make them last.

There were no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms…..BUT…..WE HAD REAL 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.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…….no really!
>
And in December, there was only one festive holiday……. CHRISTMAS …… and everyone wished each other MERRY CHRISTMAS! and NOT…. HAPPY HOLIDAYS….. take it or leave it!

We were given air rifles and Catapults for our 10th birthdays,

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT AND NOT DUE TO BLACKMAIL, THREATS AND GUILT FROM THE PAST….. strange but true!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps and bullies always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Our parents got married before they had children and didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kylie’ and ‘Brooklyn’ and ‘Paris’ and’FiFi Trixibelle’

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 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!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives ‘for our own good.’

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Oh and as far as “doclady”. Someone can go to 100 different doctors and you will get 100 different opinions. Yes, yes, I’m sure there’s scientific data to back up what you’re saying. Big deal. I take what my doctor says as opinion, in the end, I’M the parent. My husband works in doctors offices day in and day out, and he just confirms what I’ve always believed, cause you all have a few years of schooling under your belt, you feel you can talk down to people, you’re superior with overinflated egos.

@Gabi – Amen to that!! Amen!