wuss-ification

I think we're all becoming wusses.
I was reading this and its accompanying comments, and it reminded me of my youngest sister who has been known to moan, groan, holler, and drop to floor... when she stubs her toe. (Honest. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.) She does have the excuse of being still in the "single digits", but still- was I that much of a wimp at that age? I'd like to hope not. I don't think so. I know for certain of other kids that weren't such wimps at that age.
I fell off my bike at age 8 or so onto a gravel hill once. I cried, but tried not to too loud- I didn't want anyone aside from my cousin to notice. I tried to hide the bruise on my knee from my mom until it went away (I don't know why)- and it was a decent sized bruise too. I think my cousin might have gone and gotten me some ice for it. But not too long after having fallen, I got back up and (a bit stiffly) resumed riding around on my bike.
If the same thing happened to my youngest sister, what would her reaction be? Knowing her (not to condemn her or anything, I'm just giving my honest opinion in a matter-of-fact sort of way) she would almost certainly cry, clutch her knee, and possibly lie on the ground making sounds of pain for a few moments, and perhaps repeat again when she *tried* to get get up and walk.
Maybe she just has a low pain tolerance.
Maybe our society contributes to that low pain tolerance.
Headache? --get a tylenol.
Cold? --nyquil
Tired? --caffeine
Can't sleep? --sleep aide
sneezing out the whazoo? --benadryl
etc etc
Not to condemn these practices either, I have been guilty of each (well, okay, not the "can't sleep" one, but I have been known to be more religious about taking one of my meds because it has the side effect of drowsiness). I will go so far as to say that I have been guilty of these on a consistant and reliable basis. And I see nothing wrong with it.
If your head hurts, and you can take away, or at least abate, the pain, then why suffer?
Now, I do try very hard to not be a wimp about pain-- it has to be really bad before the temptation to cry and curse becomes very real indeed. I try to take a step back and look at my pain objectively.
OK, I have a headache. How bad is it? Well, the fact that it falls under the category of "existent" as opposed to "nonexistent" really doesn't mean anything to me anymore- it used to, back in the days when I could take two tylenol for it and 20-30 min. later forget about the darn thing. Now I can't even do that except a couple times a week, and if I do, no toradol/excedrin/other pain killer for me for another week. So, I have become selective about which headaches to "treat". Basically it goes like this- is this "just" a headache (with varying level of pain), or is it a possibly-pre-migraine-headache. The first warrants ignoring. The second, toradol or whatever triptan my neuro. has me trying at the time + other stave-off-migraine activities as warranted considering the loominess of possible impending migraine.
What I mean to say is- despite my "drugs are good for you" and "why suffer unnecessarily" philosophies, I don't think I have a low pain tolerance... At the very least, I'm pretty sure I'm not a wuss about it. (I think back to judo... asthma's another thing entirely, dear, and I may very well be a wuss about running+ my exercise induced asthma. I admit to such a possibility.) I may not be like that "90-something y/o LOL" who is tough as nails when it comes to pain- and I must say I admire the heck out of her- if offered pain meds by a physician (who knows me and my "history" as it were), I will most likely accept.
Oh, but there was that one time Dr. PCP offered a prescription for narcotics- and I say nay. I just went w/ mucho excedrin+acetaminophen w/ caffiene as needed daily (and monitored my doses pretty carefully). I didn't want to take pain meds that would make me sleepy. I will say, tho, that I have since had a few moments when I wished I had accepted that narcotics-- mostly when migraine was really, really bad and I couldn't sleep.
But I digress...
my point is (do I actually have a point, or just a few thoughts centered around something point-like) that I think today's kids are at risk of becoming wusses.
Kids should be allowed to fall down and get scraped up. Experience some pain and discomfort. It's good for them! They learn to tolerate the pain and it will come in handy when it really is something bad.
Those are my thoughts.
Sorry if they're a bit rambling and unfocused (as in- more so than normal lol). It's late, what can I say? :)