If you are a teacher or have kids you know that kids LOVE band-aids!  I was talking to another teacher who was wondering why kids nowadays love band-aids so much while we did not growing up.  I have come up with 2 reasons:  1.  When we were kids if you got an "ouchy" your mom would go to the cupboard for the Bactine before she put a band-aid on your you.  And for those of you who remember, BACTINE STUNG LIKE CRAZY!  I remember actually hiding injuries from my mom out of fear of her putting bactine on it!  2.  When we were kids (I was born in 1970) band-aids did not have pictures of Scooby-Doo and Yoda on them, they were just plain old boring flesh colored band-aids.  I now catch kids faking injuries so that they can get a band-aid!  I caught a little girl this week drawing on her arm with a red marker in the hopes I would give her a band-aid!  In our efforts to diminish our children's pain we have actually overcompensated and made getting hurt a joyous occasion!  I am not suggesting that kids are skinning their knees on purpose but why are we so quick to make a kid stop crying when they are hurt?  At the risk of sounding like my father, "It toughens them up".

A lot of things are different nowadays.  Seat belts.  I remember as a kid when my dad would take an entire baseball team of 12 kids home from practice in a small Toyota Corolla with 4 seats (and even the people in the seats were not wearing their seat belts).  Today, a coach would be crucified if he did that!

When I was a kid staying home from school because you were sick was a bummer.  Nowadays, most kids have a cupboard full of dvd's, video games and about 100 different channels to watch on TV.

Kids are definetely different nowadays but I am constantly questioning whether they are different because of us or because of them?  It's easy to blame it on MTV and this "instant gratification" generation but the kids might be different as a result of our actions and overcompensations.  I had a glorious childhood and I would love for my kids to have a similar childhood filled with Bactine, plain band-aids and boring days at home.