in summary

Its the first really hot hot hot day of the year and the girls are in the pool for the first time this season and it struck me that my children are going to grow up in a completely different world to the one I grew up in, in the 1980's in the UK. Some things are similiar, some far from it.

Very different:

• They have a pool, for them its normal to be able to go and hang out in the pool in the summer.
• They ski in the winter, theres a ski resort up the road, granted its no Whistler but it has runs and chair lifts and snow and its an all singing, all dancing ski resort.
• They have a basement that everyone watches warily when theres a monsoon outside and theres often someone in the subdivision that fell victim to basement flooding.
• They live in a subdivision in a community. We had villages, towns and cities.
• They swim in beautiful lakes off of lifeguard watched beaches with jetskis and speedboats destroying the peace from time to time.
• They live in a large detached house with a separate family room. Only my richest of rich friends as a child has a separate family room and they ended up going to Roedean School for Girls.
• They have Z's where we had S's - eg: finalize
• Z is spelt Zee and not Zed, water is warder, not warter
• They travel to school on a yellow school bus wearing non school uniform every day.
• They can travel to the US of A in a car, watching movies on an Ipad and stopping for a drivethrough slushie.
• Walmart is a normal part of life.....
• BBQs are an everyday feature, even in the winter.
• Ticks are a part of summer, as are mosquitos, blackfly and the wham bam of the screen door.
• White Christmas is a given, along with the cutting down of the perfect family Christmas tree from the Christmas tree lot. 

Somewhat similiar:

• There is also a local outdoor summer pool where they have swimming lessons in the community. When I was 8 I swam in an unheated outdoor pool at school and got changed, shivering, in a little wooden changing hut. Bingo on the outdoor pool, the hut and the  unheated pool bit.
• We have dogs, I had dogs as a child, dog hair is a fact of life in this house.
• They swim in the sea and the water is clear and the ambience peaceful, as children we would sometimes have to brave the brown cold water off of Brighton with its pebble beach, or if we were lucky Devon or some such beautiful spot.
• They live in a world where rust exists on cars. That was perfectly normal on a 1982 Ford escort.
• They play outside until the street lights come on. We did that too, even in Brighton

In summary they seem to have the best of my childhood in the best of today (sans ticks!). I couldnt have wished for more, for them.