The 21st Century Ivory Tower

The Fearful, Amazingly One-Sided Informed Modern Parent. A scary new species. My mother was never this freaked out.

It's easy for the 21st Ivory Towered folks to say you don't need to brush your teeth (the Evil Fluoride) or get a shot because they live now, in the 21st century.  They have the luxury of not living in the days of the not-so-distance past where getting the measles could kill you or leave you unable to have children. They don't live when public pools were closed because of polio. Their siblings didn't not spend hours, weeks, months in iron lungs or have to wear braces on their legs.  Very few of them have scars from chicken pox.  Their wombs are not barren. They have most, if not all their bright and shiny white teeth.

If they do have scars or crappy teeth, it's often a result of their own stupidity. But it is rarely because their mom didn't haul them off to the doctor for a shot in the a--- every now and again.

The 21st Ivory Tower Folks have the luxury of not having their children die from childhood diseases.

So many people let the Magic Box (the Interent) tell them how to think, feel, act, believe. They let it parent their children and make "informed" decisions for them. The scientists, doctors, nurses, government and drug companies are all part of the Evil Empire that are going to kill your kids.  I'm not saying that all of aforementioned speak the gospel truth.  Hardly.  But does the 21st Gang get a second, third, fourth opinion from a real, live, face-to-face human being?  Do they opt for the one-shot option? Do they coffee klatch at the PTA with other parents? No they blog and post and search for the Worst Possible Case Scenario and then latch onto that like a remora on a shark!!

The 21st Ivory Tower Folks' grandparents (and likely parents) remember and shake their heads in wonder.  Must be nice, they muse.  They remember a pregnant sister who was exposed to rubella and lost her unborn child.  They remember the cousin with the braces on her legs, dragging herself across the grass so she could hang with the other kids.  They remember diphtheria, influenza killing hundreds.

Some mom in Senegal right now is lining up, tired, thirsty on a hot muggy day just so she can get her kid that d---n shot so maybe he has a chance to live into adulthood.

Science is not the Great God, the End and Be All.  Of course not.  But remember, all you 21st Century Parental Units, without a just smidgen of science you wouldn't be in a position to flail folks with your It's All Bad rhetoric on the internet. You'd be on your knees praying to whatever Higher Power you subscribe to that your kids don't get seriously ill. Or worse.