Desires of Our Times (totally ripped and rewritten)

[dedalus]

Your Mum and Dad

wanted you to have

all the things they’d never had

 

so they made your life a misery.

The years have flown

and you’re on your own:

 

What a pissery!

Thought that you’d be happy?

Adult life is different, adults employ

 

the art of the shifting "maybe".

But you ever recall the girl or boy

you were: a modern baby

 

in his nappy stands a better chance!

Still you make your way through the maze

and sway to the rhythms of the dance

 

for this life both sad and gay

unfolds in new and brighter days

than Mum and Dad ever had.

 

---------------------------------------

 

second version:

 

Your Mum and Dad

wanted you to have

all the lovely things they never had

 

and so they made your life a misery.

Now the years have flown

and you’re on your own:

 

Christ God, what a bleedin pissery!

You thought that you’d be happy?

Adult life is different, adults employ

 

the fancy art of the shifting "maybe"

but you always recall the girl or boy

you were: a modern baby

 

in a nappy stands a better chance!

Stumbling ineptly through the maze

you sway to the rhythms of the dance

 

for this life is sad and sometimes gay

and unfolds in new and brighter days

than Mum and Dad ever had.

 

(I knew I was on to ~something~ in the original but it was pretty awful in poetic terms. When in doubt, sleep on it. Yes, there is an echo of Larkin and THAT poem!)

[Benjamin]

The world changes more rapidly with each generation yet the problems of parenting remain the same.How to provide, educate, guide and instill values and responsibility into young minds that are more interested in socializing and 'must have' gadgets-- .

[dedalus]

Leave them alone, I was thinking ... but you can't really. Stupider people than you get a hold of them, otherwise. I have only the one daughter but through design, good luck and chance ... not to mention her own solid common sense: kids work things out for themseles ... she turned out great. If anything bad or arbitrary should happen to her after all that I would be totally destroyed. That's the downside of having kids. There's too much love involved.

[Benjamin]

We can only hope that parental love is accepted and interpreted in a positive way.

[dedalus]

! ! ! !

[dansalinger]

in an instant we go from children to parents learning to navigate this world while at the same time trying to raise and guide our children.