When did bowling become so child friendly?  I remember many, many years ago my humiliation as I tried desperately to will the balls out of the gutter.  Not anymore.

Now, the scoring is all computerized---you bowl and your score is automatically recorded and flashed on an overhead display. There are no more struggles with how to score strikes and spares and, heaven forbid, have to do the math.

There are now lighter balls for smaller hands. And they come in an assortment of pastel colors. This makes for a pretty palette of colors rolling down the alley.

There are small, kid-sized wooden slides that can be placed in the alley for little bowlers to push a ball down and watch it roll down the alley, rather than having to actually lift the ball.

And, there are metal railings lining both sides of the alley as bumpers that prevent little bowlers from ever throwing a gutter ball! Now I must admit that I had very mixed feelings about this one. At first I thought GREAT-a sport that never let's a child feel like a failure.  Every ball hits something. If only the world could think of an equivalent mechanism for life so we could all grow up disappointment and mistake free.

And then I started thinking, would that work?  And even if it did, would it be a good thing?  Aren't our mistakes part of how we learn? If someone or something smoothed the way for us and took away all the failures would we be better people? Or would we be happier?

If I hadn't snuck into the drive-in movie when I was a teenager (and got caught) would I have continued to sneak into movies or moved on to bigger crimes?

If I hadn't read the Cliff Notes summary of Jane Eyre (and got caught) might I have missed many works of literature the rest of my life?

If I hadn't dated the wrong men, would I have recognized and appreciated the wonderful man I married? 
I think not.  I needed to make those mistakes and have those disappointments to bring me to the person I was meant to be.

When it comes to the assisted bowling though, I came down on the side of thinking it's a good thing.  Like training wheels on that first two-wheeler.

I'll admit, I'm going to sneak back to the Bowling Alley when the kids aren't around, pick up a pastel ball, roll it down the slide and watch my sure thing bounce off the bumpers as it rolls down the alley and knocks down those pins.  I'll let you know how it feels.