Wussification?

I am sitting here wondering if we aren't creating entire generations of kids that have no idea how to handle life, real life...

Evening sun setting over the horizon Wednesday

A bit later on Wednesday, school already being cancelled

 Here in the Mid-West it's been a few years since we've really had a big winter storm, you know the kind that knock out the power and you can hear the echo of generators and groups of folks all gathering to help shovel out or warm up those that can't do it for themselves. This past winter we've had the promise of "snowmeggedan" - please, i don't think that one managed to have 2 inches of accumulation! Yesterday they started talking about the huge storm that was barreling down on us here in the St. Louis area.

Now mind you while the entire area was rushing to the store for milk, eggs and bread, I am really bumming, because long before the snow talk I had planned to do my shopping for groceries last night.  It's insane the way folks behave when the mere mention of snow is brought up. Maybe because I have lived in places where the snow banks were high enough to build snow condo's I am a bit jaded, but really is an inch or two of snow really worth stocking up for a blizzard over?

By the time we had battled the folks thinking they were going to live on french toast during the storm, I guess they have forgotten during the last big winter storm some of us were without power for over 8 days (yep, I was in that group) and cold bread and milk served with raw eggs is not tasty.  Peanut butter I could understand, but eggs?

But I digress, by the time we've shopped for our weekly groceries and headed home the folks that run our schools were already on a roll.  Before the first slightest hint of snow was in the air over half of the private and church related schools had already called school for the next day.  By the time dinner was cooked and all of the groceries put away, pretty much every school in the metro area had cancelled classes for the day.

7:00 am

Drive to work... passing all the bus stops

Barely any clouds... Why is school cancelled?

 Now I might seem insensitive here, but, we have historical data that most storms simply decide to head north or south of us, very few decide to barrel straight through.  Mother Nature takes the belt way around the city with greater regularity than the truckers do.

With dawns first light it is very evident that we are still bone dry and the sun is rising through clouds. The news is covering the fact that all schools are closed, the city has called it a day and there will be no work accomplished in government offices and people should stay home and be safe.

10:00 am??  Still not sure I feel school should have been called

I get it, if it was a blizzard, if there were a promise of 6 - 12 inches all of that should happen.  But last forecast called for a mere 2 - 4 inches with the possibility of 1/10 of an inch of ice by late tonight.  And nothing happening until at least 11 am.

Did our kids really need to miss a day of school?  For fear of sounding like my parents and grandparents, who walked up the hill both ways to and from school in sub-zero temperatures, I am afraid we are creating generations that expect no speed bumps or problems from their perfect lives.  No inconvenience or discomfort allowed.  School gets out at 3 pm, the snow started to accumulate at 1:30, and here it is 5:00 pm and the roads are still passable, just with caution, the first snow plows just went down our road. Drivers need to remember wintery mix means use caution. Kids could have attended at least a half day of school...

Driving home at 1:15 pm... not that bad

Still not sure school should have been called

Or work for that matter... although I am thankful for the day

Not so much accumulation 1:45 pm

We've taken away from kids the ability to want and wait for anything. I remember being a kid and looking out the windows at school wondering how late they would keep us, as I still had to walk home in all that stuff falling from the sky.  And I asked my daughter if she remembered it and she agreed she remembered the same thing.  Now we don't even wait for flurries to cancel?  What happened to just calling the day early when the storms seriously came in?

How is this any different from stopping at every driveway to pick up kids in the morning because we don't want them to walk to a common area and then complaining about the cost to run the buses?  Or not expecting children within a mile and half to walk to school?  Or maybe ride their bikes?  But those things went away when we stopped putting sidewalks in our city planning,

I don't want anyone's children's in danger, but they didn't sit home sipping hot chocolate, building snow men in the yard or anything like that, they went about their lives the same as any day, except they cut the school part out.  They were out riding buses, visiting friends, being driven or driving around.  And some of the adults aren't any better.

2:45 pm

2:45 pm

 I work in the service industry, and the number of people that called in stating "what do you mean you are closing?  I have the day off  because of the weather and I want to come out".  Seriously people?  If the weather is bad enough you needed to stay home, don't you think it is bad enough to stay home, and let others stay home safe also?

5:00 pm Neeko the fearless is checking it out

 

I am glad I am sitting at home and not driving, not because I think it is that terrible out, but because I hate the torture of trying to drive home between the guy in the Camero that thinks he's out for a summer drive and is hot rodding it and the guy in the 4-wheel drive SUV that doesn't realize that doesn't mean he won't sliding all over the road.  I am enjoying an afternoon of sitting in my living room listening to the wind and hearing the icy wrapped snow tapping against my awning.  I am more concerned with the high winds, cold and the iciness, but all of it is almost past us, and tomorrow will dawn clear and bright.  The fact that they are already closing schools for Friday blows my mind, there is less than 3" of snow on the ground and we have snow plows out. Unless your heat or power is knocked out... I think it's time to man up, face life and get on with it...

Gator agrees with the school board & the Mayor its cold & he is staying put