Brad S wrote:We grow too soon old and too late smart.
That'd be my excuse for sure. My dad would say "the tragedy of generations is you can't pass wisdom from one generation to the next one."
Maybe it works better to skip a generation or two in the passing on of wisdom. Good things and bad both come of no longer having so much contact as previous generations. As in when the grandparents or 'greats' lived in the same home and spent more time actually talking to and showing/sharing their knowledge directly with the little kids.
A current thing we see is our four year old great grand daughter watching the 'men' in her life, and her mom and dad, aunts and uncles, grandpa's and especially great grandpa as they are doing normal ranch chores. She is especially observant of great grandpa Shorty mixing and filling vaccine guns. My guess is that if she had the hand to eye coordination needed, she could do that job. Of course, that won't be allowed for several years, but observing the care and hearing the reasons for what the older people are doing. Shorty CERTAINLY is more patient at explaining such things to her than he was with our kids at the same age!!!. And we do hear more about safety than in previous years. I'm a real 'nervous Nellie' about keeping them safe, yet allowing room to teach and experience as much as they can while they are interested. And get them 'hooked' while they see that 'work' is fun!!! Plenty of time later to fit in the gritty stuff and fact that it can get tiresome, too. And us old geezers will stay out of nursing homes as long as possible if we have valuable 'jobs' teaching our 'wisdom' to an appreciative audience! Probably wishful thinking, but it can work pretty well for some, and probably is being done more than we realize.
mrj