How times have changed

Yes exactly, and that's also part of the reason why 2/3's of the US POPULATION are so GROSSLY OVERWEIGHT now.

'You know what Hendry?...You're a real jerk...
You wasted eight fuckin' aprons on this guy...We gotta toughen this kid up'

😄

> All the adults enjoyed the games and good weather.

All of them. Every single one. I'll bet that's right, because it reminds me of a pet peeve about such events ... and while all your guests participated, I suspect not all enjoyed them.

At such events I've been to, there's usually one guy -- let's call him Cousin Bob -- who shows up driving a van loaded down with every sort of athletic implement imaginable, its axles groaning from the weight. Wanna get a football game going? No problem -- there are two full sets of uniforms, pads, and a couple of partially assembled goal posts in there! Baseball instead? He's ready for that too! Volleyball, horseshoes, cricket? He's got that stuff as well. He's even got a couple of telephone poles lashed to the top of the vehicle, in case people want to do Scottish caber tosses.

So some sort of game is set up. Then Bob's minions go into action -- for some reason they're predominantly young adult women, I have no idea why. It seems the rule is that Everybody Must Play. When the hell did I agree to that?

So they ask once. I say, maybe later. They ask again in a few minutes. I say that I'm kind of busy. A few minutes after they're back, imploring me to step in for the next round of whatever it is, insisting that Everybody Must Play. Hey, can't you take a hint? -- I'm talking to Cousin Ernie here, he's just got back from ISS where he's been for the past year, it's a hell of a lot more interesting than your stupid game.

Finally I agree to play for one game, just to get them to leave me alone. And of course I've already heard the tired old cliche a hundred times over, that "It's just a friendly little game," somewhat from the minions but mostly from Cousin Bob himself. But guess what, folks? Turns out Cousin Bob doesn't understand that there are different standards of decorum in a family reunion than in a professional world championship. He's gotta "give it a hundred and ten percent" no matter what the situation. If it's basketball, he's gonna come down from a rebound swinging his elbows into his kinsmen's faces. If it's baseball he'll slide in, spikes up high, at the terrified eight year old third baseman. If it's volleyball he'll spike it over the net straight at Grandpa's nuts.

Is it the same way at your parties?

Where I live I still see kids riding their bicycles and playing in the park.

People: "children are our future"

Children: "hey let's film ourselves getting a high score in Fortnite and upload it to tiktok and see how many likes we can get."

It all depends on the up bringing.

To an extent, it's not really up to kids how much exercise they get. When I was growing up, I had absent parents, so I spent a lot of time outdoors because no one was really telling me what to do. But now as an adult, all the kids I know stay at home because their parents won't let them go out, and then buy them various game consoles and phones so that they don't have to entertain their own kids. Even if they want to go outdoors to play or have bikes and want to ride them, they're not allowed to go out without their parents' being present, but their parents are either not interested or not available.

When I was in Mexico years ago, I seen a boy probably no older than 10 who it looked already had a drinking problem. At night in the theatre area with the adults, he would go around looking for what looked like unattended drinks. And just grab one and drink it. He guzzled a near full glass of beer, then slammed it down macho man style, as if to say "look what I just done". But what in my opinion was the worst thing about it, his parents were there and watching him do this and didn't seem to care. A day or so later, I seen him drinking away some more, down at the swim up bar. Just utterly pathetic, the whole thing, that young kids can apparently get away with drinking, and the parents not giving a damn.