The world is a different place

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious nonsense about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot with newspaper wrapped around their feet JUST to stay warm... 

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way, I was going to lay a bunch of that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! 

But now that I have a couple kids and I see how REALLY different the world has become and IS becoming... 

I mean, when I was a kid we barely had the Internet. We had dial-up and ONLY when I was in high school! If we wanted to know something before that, we had to go to the"Big Book of Everything" or grab an encyclopedia!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butt if necessary.. they certainly had no problem telling us what's what! 

There was no 24 hour cartoon channels! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores! Otherwise you were outside, running a muck ANYWHERE in town, (WITHOUT SUPPLYING YOUR PARENTS WITH A SPECIFIC ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER OR DIRECTIONS) until the street lights came on! 

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

The little things seem weird, humorous even. But, the fact is, the world today is a scary place today, MUCH different from the world I grew up in.

Now, I fear my children will be safe if they leave my home and attend school for fear of bullies or violence or kid-napping. I fear a war will break out on our own turf any moment. I fear the education they receive will not prepare them for the world. I fear that we don't know where our country is headed or how much longer it will last. The world we live in now, is a VERY different, VERY scary place.