Have we bred a whole generation of whinging wimps?

[Cortrasna]

Slightly tongue in cheek thread but love to hear your thoughts on this. I have noticed recently (not here as have been absent from NR for sometime) but 2 other forums I used and also Facebook, some totally ridiculous posts about relatively innocuous injuries/illness - usually the OP asking how long before they can ride/go back to work/ scratch their rear end for themselves etc. etc.

One of note - stung by stinging nettles on arm..asking for remedies as had done everything possible to alleviate the pain - pain! a stinging nettle!!! (apparently) soaking it in bath, applying potions and lotions etc. Poor patient was concerned as she is a typist and will have to try and type if she goes back to work and worried about the tingling feeling when typing??? That one would get its cards PDQ I can tell you.

Another one - sprained ankle..not broken, sprained and swollen - how long before she can ride etc, well if you feel you can't ride with it then dont! But if you truly want to you wouldn't even be asking the question would you? ..... just put a good supportive boot on and get on with it - I can remember cutting one of my OH's size 9's into a roughly fashioned giant leather support boot to get my injured foot into a stirrup iron to still be able to ride. Oh and that reminds me another ankle, broken but all sorted wearing a supportive boot to get them moving about - they wouldn't be able to go into their office job as the 'strain' would slow down recovery - I kid you not - that one would get their cards PDQ too.

Broken finger (well swollen they didnt know if it was actually broken)...can't ride despite all nine other digits just perfect...strap it to one of the good ones then....or even try riding one handed - it can be done you know with very little effort or expertise!) but they feared it could be weeks before they would be able to ride again - give me strength.

Am I being harsh on these young people - and they are without exception young people as far as I can ascertain. Jaysus, scary thought if we ever have to go to war and rely on this bunch for bravery and protection - that'll be a short battle very quickly lost won't it!

 

[newforest]

If I am conscious I am fine. If I am not I have a problem.
Perhaps living with a longterm condition you just get on with it, life isn't a rehearsal!

 

[Cortrasna]

If I am conscious I am fine. If I am not I have a problem.
Perhaps living with a longterm condition you just get on with it, life isn't a rehearsal!

Exactly my thoughts NF - we none of us know how long we are lucky enough to be here and especially here enjoying the privilege of having our horses. Just get on with it for as long as you are able, and that includes day to day life, and if your pulse stops then call it a day!

 

[MrA]

I think I would rather this than them being as stoic as my parents and grandparents generations seem to be... Fell down the stairs on the bus, broke nose and face black and blue at 82yo and keep having funny turns? Sleep it off. Showing symptoms of a stroke? Have a glass of water. Sliced your hand open on a very large blade down to the bone, nothing some tape and sandpaper (to sand down the dead skin) won't fix. Got a large metal splinter deep inside your hand and signs of infection. Just perform minor surgery on yourself. Daughter got a strange large growth on her hand? Just tie cotton around it until it gets hugely infected and she collapses. My brother also stepped on a glass in the garden and despite alot of heavy bleeding and it repeatedly reopening he never even saw a doctor. They just tapped it up. And yes these are all 100% true!

 

[carthorse]

There certainly seem to be some very delicate little snowflakes out there nowadays! And I have to disagree with you slightly Cortrasna, they aren't all youngsters. I do wonder how some of them get through the day - what happens if they take a mouthful of their morning coffee before it's cooled to a comfortable temperature? Or stub their toe getting out of bed? Or maybe the sound of the alarm clock scares them and they need a week off to recover from the trauma?!

I do fall into the strap it up and carry on brigade whenever possible, though I'll own up to migraines that lay me out flat barely able to find the bathroom & unable to function. Proper migraines though, not a slight headache that's being dramatized. I must admit there have been times when getting some proper medical treatment might have been a better idea, but I haven't died yet!

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

I got on bud one week after having my gallbladder out, possibly not wise. When Leo massacred my thumb on the gate, almost amputating it, I had to have emergency surgery and told them that I would need to be out that day as I was the only one who could take Suze's muzzle off and she couldn't have it on 24.7.....I then had to d0 4 months' work in-puting stuff into our new website with my thumb which was in a cradle with loads of stitches, and made you almost scream when you knocked it on something. But then if you work for yourself you have to soldier on. I had 4 wisdom teeth out on a Friday - accounts now for being crackers as no wisdom left - and was at work on Monday looking with a bruised chipmunk.

 

[Cortrasna]

Ale I do think your ones really do go to the other extreme - I agree none of those are desirable or to be advised lol!

 

[Trewsers]

Lot of princesses I tell you!

 

[Jessey]

There are definitely a lot of those young ones about, but I often think it isn't about the actual injury/ailment but the drama/attention of it. But it happens in every generation (though I think maybe more with younger ones).

I got pulled into an 'intervention' once, this young man said my number 2 and I were picking on him, we literally were just expecting him to do his job and not letting him get away with saying he didn't know how (after we'd been training him for 6 months full time) and refused to go round cleaning up after him. I think I may actually have laughed when I was told what was going on, we had to bring in other managers (men) so he could tell them what had been going on and they could to explain to him our expectations were in no way unrealistic and neither of us were to be expected to do motherly chores! Hurt feelings reports are a real thing!
But on the same note I've had some damn good eggs too, who worked through serious injury etc. One wheeled himself around the workshop for 6 weeks with a duffed achillies tendon, not a murmur that he couldn't do anything. He'd seen the doc, was in a cast and had crutches but as a mechanic you need both hands to work.

 

[Cortrasna]

I like the sound of your good egg Jessey - my kind of person

 

[newforest]

I think if you have children or animals to look after you do tend to just carry on.
I am not saying I wouldn't visit the hospital, when I cracked my collar bone I did after three weeks and even they didn't think I had done anything as I was still riding. Yes but we kinda do.

@Cortrasna you were still here when the cob stepped on my leg weren't you? It suffered nerve damage and a&e said how come you didn't visit straight away, well, cos it didn't hurt did it.

But I agree somewhere in the middle is ideal. You don't want snowflakes or snowstorms.

 

[newforest]

There certainly seem to be some very delicate little snowflakes out there nowadays! And I have to disagree with you slightly Cortrasna, they aren't all youngsters. I do wonder how some of them get through the day - what happens if they take a mouthful of their morning coffee before it's cooled to a comfortable temperature? Or stub their toe getting out of bed? Or maybe the sound of the alarm clock scares them and they need a week off to recover from the trauma?!

I do fall into the strap it up and carry on brigade whenever possible, though I'll own up to migraines that lay me out flat barely able to find the bathroom & unable to function. Proper migraines though, not a slight headache that's being dramatized. I must admit there have been times when getting some proper medical treatment might have been a better idea, but I haven't died yet!

Agree re migraines.
If someone tells me in the street they have a migraine, eh no you don't.
The migraine puts you in bed with a bucket to be sick in! Or stuffs up your vision. Or causes you to sweat and get the trots.

 

[Huggy]

I don't think you're being harsh, but I suppose each to his own. I've had numerous broken toes, and now just keep my old UG boots with the toe cut out handy, perfect for getting about! Got told off by the nurse in A&E for seeing to my horses with a possible broken foot (who else was going to do do it - the feed/poo fairy?!) I staggered into the garden when I had D&V to watch the eclipse with 2 very excited children - the list goes on. I do know some people my age though, who are just as precious as many youngsters seem to be. I think it's personality driven, to a degree - I like the feeling of satisfaction when I haven't let my frailties get the better of me! I also think if you've chosen to have children, dogs, horses or whatever, unless you're bleeding out in the floor, or have a bone sticking out of your body, you should own your responsibilities.

 

[Bodshi]

Not all youngsters are like that though - my youngest son's (sadly ex) girlfriend got kicked in the field and ended up in hospital in ICU with a collapsed lung, followed by having her ribs plated. Her twin sister has just broken one of her vertebrae in a nasty fall, but didn't go to hospital until a day or two after it happened when her legs started going numb (thankfully she will be ok, it was something to do with swelling). They both posted their injuries on FB, but don't usually post about their many other more trivial wounds.

 

[domane]

I can be a wuss but I was back poo picking 3 weeks after I busted all those ribs, 7 years ago. And last year I walked around for a month, feeling like death - including looking after a friend's 3 horses (mucking out, haynets as well as my own) for a week, before feeling like death forced me to go to the docs.... and got diagnosed with pneumonia. So I can also get over myself when the horses need something!

 

[Bodshi]

My mum was quite hard on us though, she didn't let us get away with trivial ailments. When there was a mumps epidemic and I had a sore throat and ear ache she put me a bonnet on (you have to be a certain age to remember wearing a bonnet) and sent me to school. She said I had to tell the teacher I needed to keep it on because of my ear ache. Needless to say the teacher took it off, saw my swollen face and sent me home. My mum was a teacher at the same school too.

I think there are different attitudes towards illness these days, lots of rules and regulations about not going to work/not sending children to school with a sniffle etc. Maybe that makes us soft. I do think some people are very precious about themselves though.

I wonder if there is more of an expectation that life will be all sweetness and light and full of happiness and joy these days? When you think back to how tough it could be just a couple of generations ago?

 

[Trewsers]

My mum was quite hard on us though, she didn't let us get away with trivial ailments. When there was a mumps epidemic and I had a sore throat and ear ache she put me a bonnet on (you have to be a certain age to remember wearing a bonnet) and sent me to school. She said I had to tell the teacher I needed to keep it on because of my ear ache. Needless to say the teacher took it off, saw my swollen face and sent me home. My mum was a teacher at the same school too.

I think there are different attitudes towards illness these days, lots of rules and regulations about not going to work/not sending children to school with a sniffle etc. Maybe that makes us soft. I do think some people are very precious about themselves though.

I wonder if there is more of an expectation that life will be all sweetness and light and full of happiness and joy these days? When you think back to how tough it could be just a couple of generations ago?

I remember bonnets

 

[Cortrasna]

My mother was a nursing sister in a hospital that mostly had terminally ill patients. Consequently any illness or injury unless truly major was quickly brushed off by her to the same old and constant refrain "if you saw how really ill the children I nurse every day are you wouldn't be laying there sniveling and feeling sorry for yourself - now get up and get off to school!" .... out off to the horses or whatever that day had in store for us. I guess that attitude does tend to rub of on you lol! Mind you she was still volunteer nursing out in the jungles of Africa well into her 70s so at least she practiced what she preached.

 

[PePo]

The thing is, though, without knowing the full story of that person it's incredibly easy to judge.

I know one older than myself women at works thinks I'm a complete snowflake as I have an array of antibacterial wipes and gels and I work from home if someone in my team has a cold or flu like symptoms - I'm working from home now in fact - and am very careful about transmitting or catching germs. I won't let other people with the possibility of germs make me a cup of tea in the office, I refuse to use the communal tea cups and always use my own as I know I can de-bug it appropriately.

She's probably talked about me hundred's of times, to prove a point she has about the 'snowflake' generation - and she's entitled to think that (and continue to voice it, if she so wishes). It's more fun to let it annoy her, then tell her why.

Also: not always true regarding migraine symptoms. I get migraines and have treatment from my GP and am on POM medication for them when necessary - however, I'm rarely bed ridden by them and have never thrown up because of one. I'm not affected by light, so no need to lie down in a darkened room (although I have other triggers) and most of the time, with medication I can get by to a fuller or lesser extent. My GP has confirmed migraines, so if someone else on the street wants to think I can't possibly have a migraine because I'm able to stand upright and be outside during a lesser attack ... be my guest!

I'm actually pretty stoic - my Mum was a nurse in the 70's so I had to be! I could retell stories of 'stoic-ism' to all sorts of people. But what for? They probably couldn't give two hoots. I know full well I can get on with it, as do those that matter. Stranger's (or vague acquaintances) judgement of my level or ability to cope with something isn't really a concern of mine.

 

[Trewsers]

The thing is, though, without knowing the full story of that person it's incredibly easy to judge.

I know one older than myself women at works thinks I'm a complete snowflake as I have an array of antibacterial wipes and gels and I work from home if someone in my team has a cold or flu like symptoms - I'm working from home now in fact - and am very careful about transmitting or catching germs. I won't let other people with the possibility of germs make me a cup of tea in the office, I refuse to use the communal tea cups and always use my own as I know I can de-bug it appropriately.

She's probably talked about me hundred's of times, to prove a point she has about the 'snowflake' generation - and she's entitled to think that (and continue to voice it, if she so wishes). It's more fun to let it annoy her, then tell her why.

Also: not always true regarding migraine symptoms. I get migraines and have treatment from my GP and am on POM medication for them when necessary - however, I'm rarely bed ridden by them and have never thrown up because of one. I'm not affected by light, so no need to lie down in a darkened room (although I have other triggers) and most of the time, with medication I can get by to a fuller or lesser extent. My GP has confirmed migraines, so if someone else on the street wants to think I can't possibly have a migraine because I'm able to stand upright and be outside during a lesser attack ... be my guest!

I'm actually pretty stoic - my Mum was a nurse in the 70's so I had to be! I could retell stories of 'stoic-ism' to all sorts of people. But what for? They probably couldn't give two hoots. I know full well I can get on with it, as do those that matter. Stranger's (or vague acquaintances) judgement of my level or ability to cope with something isn't really a concern of mine.

I am careful about catching flu or anything like before Mr T has had his vaccination - he has asthma and the one time he caught flu (hadn't had a jab) he ended up with bleeding and a chest infection, narrowly escaping hospital. So I do understand totally your need to be careful if flu can make you or a partner severely ill.

I think it's difficult - I think a lot of things are blown out of proportion at times but it's a fine line too. I am the worlds worst for not going to the doctor. I should be better because putting stuff off never does much good!

Just wanted to add: Mr T gets visual migraines - they don't make him feel sick but come randomly.