Those were the days??

in the early evening on Monday, the 21st of March 2005 by Tina

Over the years i have known people who have said they would not have childern due to the current "times".

I hear people talking about the danger in schools, and the danger to children in their own yards…

These concerns and more are always valid concerns, but when they have to be compared to the past they are being terribly mismeasured.

Comparing kidnapping (and worse) that have happened to children over they years, look back to the 70’s to current day.. now there is wide media and reporting on missing children, there is megan’s law.. back in the 70’s there was very little communication between law enforcement locations, so any child taken over state or district lines was lost (more often then not, they were lost for good)… communication was poor, and follow up was worse..

So when it comes to the safety difference of now vs then.. then was worse.

People who complain about the violence in schools.. violence in school has always been there, in different degrees and has passed by in waves where it would be really bad to not noticable. In any case again the media are what makes us more aware of even the most minor school issues.

Crime on the street is also not worse then it has been in the past.. i will repeat, media, media, media.. they have a huge part to play in everything we see in and hear, and it is not rare for the media to make any situation seem much more grand then it would normally be (I know shock shock, but true).

So when comparing then and now.. don’t! It is a different world. Media is huge now.. law enforcement is much better connected then it once was.

So what then? be aware.. be aware of where your children are, what they are doing, and who they hang out with. Yes, it is impossible to be on children 100% of the time.. but thinking now is worse then it once was.. that just does no good. Being aware of the past is a good thing, and knowing where and when mistakes had been made will better prepare you and your children from repeating such cases. Nothing is fail-proof.. but simply believing times are worse really will not do any benefit.

Sorry for such a ramble, but i know i have heard this my entire life.. but think of this.. this is nothing new.. people had to go through "duck n cover" drills, what do you think potential parents thought of that time period? WW2 where the fear of Hitler and Japan causing havoc here, who do you think the thoughts of that time were? How would you have felt at that time period? How about the days of the wagon trains? Think back to the Civil war where children, literally children, faught and died??

There is no perfect time period, nothing is 100% safe, nothing ever will be! Every time period has its pluses and minuses! I know i think of times where I feel i would better belong, but i know there is good & bad.. so what is important is this is the time we are living in now.. and there is alot of good to the current times.. if there is something we feel we lack we certainly can try our best to bring those facets to our own world… it is our world.. ENJOY!