weather whingers

Back again!!.. and already this first week of the six weeks summer holiday has whisked by. I was just reading a article written by Janet Street-Porter about how this country is falling to bits over some heat, how many people just don't seem to have any common sense when it comes to coping with weather which isn't the usual pouring with rain, grey and wind that we are used to but also how people, like the Met Office, use phases like 'stay safe' while telling us about soring temperatures. Non dog owners spend a lot of time criticise dog owners for walking their dogs in the heat, I even saw on Facebook that someone approached a blind man with his guide dog to give him a stern telling off for bringing his doggie out...what's the guy supposed to do? Sit at home and wait for the weather to pass! I'm sure his boss would have loved that. So while I wondered around town today (without a plastic bottle of water) I pondered on how many people have had a go at parents for bringing their tiny screaming babies out in the heat of the day...I also wondered how other countries cope? Australia for example, do they need constant instructions on how to look after themselves during their summer? of course they don't. And what about a bit of snow in this country, it sends everyone on high alert. I recon as a country, the British are a nation of weather whingers. 
Upstairs laying on her bed with the blinds down and the fan on is the youngest daughter who is suffering from heat stroke...I don't have a lot of sympathy I'm afraid because yesterday she laid around on the sofa doing bugger all and then went into town in temperatures above 35 degrees, but it didn't occur to her to put fluid back into to her body to replace what she was sweating out, so now we are a dying duck and have a stinking head ache as well as a upset tummy lesson learnt though I hope.
Thinking back to my childhood summers, we rarely used sunscreen and if we did it was the cheapest Mum could find, when there's three little bodies to cover a bottle of sunscreen lasts two days. We used to build a den in the corn field behind our house and played in it all summer until the farmer cut the corn. We came home filthy every day, and we always took a massive bottle of drink with us and we all drank out of that same bottle. Sunny days were fun days, we used to go running back to the little shed in our garden where the chest freezer was kept and help ourselves to a Choc-ice or ice-pops, at night we slept with just our nickers on and the window wide open, this was normal. These days people frown if you dare suggest that you child is allowed to take their clothes off because you never know who is looking, you cant sleep with the windows open because a bug might come in and bite you while you are sleeping and then you might have a reaction and die!
We used to sit at the edge of the river and dangle our feet in to cool ourselves off, we knew better than to jump in because our parents had showed us where is safe and where isn't, and the part of the river which passed our house wasn't safe for swimming.. so we didn't do it, simple.
We didn't need mobile phones because we were home when we were told we should be. I wouldn't want to be a child these days, I couldn't be arsed with keeping up with the dress code or vocabulary. Social media meant shouting to your mate over the fence or writing notes to the boy you fancied and leaving it in his part of the corn field where he and his mates had made their own den. 
Don't get me wrong, my childhood wasn't all singing and dancing, I remember rolling around in the corn and falling straight into a ditch of stinging nettles, I remember running for my life the day I got hold of my Dad's paint compressor and re-sprayed the car that was sitting in his garage. Then there was the day my younger sister and I held my middle sister down and shaved half her hair off....and then of course there was the unforgettable day the cat came home covered in concrete and Mum had gone to work leaving me in charge, there was no scene quite like the one of me and my two sisters trying to catch this bloody cat and then get him in the bath, and what's more he was a cranky bloody cat who didn't want a bath thankyou very much and I recon I still got the scars to prove it.
I'm with Janet, She refers to Nany-state panic and this is because we don't seem to have a mind of our own anymore, everything is too dangerous and every activity comes with a 'warning'  she says that one Met Office nerd was handing out totally unnecessary advise- wear sunglasses...wear a wide brimmed hat and use sun cream...ohhhh and don't go out in the sun between 11am and 3pm.
I mean..what? Every news channel is crammed with how the heat is having a domed effect on the farmers and their crops....come on people its two bloody months and in my area of the country its only been REALLY hot this last few days. Just you wait, tomorrow when the thunder storms and heavy rain starts we will be moaning again and receiving warnings and advice on how to cope with wet weather and the best ways not to be struck by lightening.
For me though, in my tiny little world, I will be happy to see the green grass again...mostly because my little pooch blends in with the ground and I cant see him!