C'est La Vie;That's life

Do you obsessively wash your childrens' hands till the poor skin loses one-inch of epidermis? Are you absolutely convinced that the sole mission in a bacteria's life, is to hunt and infect you and your family? Do cleaning and sanitation products take complete priority in your shopping list? Paranoid about dirt-attacks? Have to have those squeaky-clean floors? Ok, i'll stop now because by now, we all know whoever you are. Here goes a new theory that i came across and thought i'll share. Just for you. Dr. Erika Von Mutius, a health researcher has come up with a new theory to explain why the number of asthma and allergies in children are increasing in the much cleaner West. She dubbed it as "The Hygiene Hypothesis," which states that children who are around numerous other children or animals early in life are exposed to more microbes, and their immune systems develop more tolerance for the irritants that cause asthma. Also, the human immune system has evolved

Next, bring on the trumpets and the marching bands, please. Gen X, the now mid 30 to 40'ers (it's my era, so please don't mind the extra fanfare) have come to town. Let's start with childhood. Physical work has started diluting by this time paving way to more focus on education for both men and women. Quality of life was shades better because the culture of materialism had slowly creeped into the society. From transportation to household appliances, changes were happening for the better. As Gen X kids, we still drew water from wells, walked to do errands, biked to schools, did work in the house - without money, mind it (if i ask my kid to do this now, she'd protest it as child labor) and helped the grand parents who were at home. Other biggie at that time, is that entertainment was all outdoors, because let's face it. Indoors was too boring, crowded with people and also a danger zone for children who could get assigned random chores on sight. Imaginary play t

So, here is it folks. I'm going to make a very important official declaration, that i'm not too happy, but kind of arm-twisted to make - I'M GROWING OLD! And, how do i know this? Strangely of late, the starting line of my conversation to the kids have been with that wretched, dreaded and nightmarish words, "In those days, we used to..." . The very same line that I use to tease my father when he said it or politely yawn when my granny droned away for the nth time. The great circle of life, and now it's my turn already. Sigh, how time flies. But, we middle-aged Gen X's don't give up that easily, right? There's nothing much we can do about it except to over-analyze the whole thing and make a mess out of it. Let me roll up my sleeves and the pen here. First, i'll start with the now 60 and 70'ers, which i'm going to call "Gen W". I had to make that up on my own because only in the West, they have a fancy name called "baby