Rick,
I agree totally. When my brother and I were growing up it was a different world I guess. When mom or dad said "don't do that" we didn't...or else.
Dad only had to ask once nicely to get something done. There was no second time.
We lived on a salt water canal with a seawall. If you fell off the seawall at low tide, you ended up on an oyster bed shredded. So mom and dad said *Don't go near the edge of the seawall* Guess what, my brother and I never fell in and got hurt. There were no safety gates or audible alarms like today. There was just mom doing *her job* called *parenting*.
I agree that all of the safety devices that are out there today came about because of child injuries and deaths and are a good thing. However, I don't believe parents are minding their children the same today as in the past.
True society has changed and most parents, unlike mine, have to work 3 jobs between them just to make ends meet. So parental time with the kids is very limited as to what it was when we were growing up.
Today kids are raised by the grandparents, day care, or worst yet...a total stranger that parents put their faith and trust into.
It is ashamed the way society is changing. I think we were much better off the way it was. One parent working one job and the other parent home to watch and raise the kids properly.
Of course, today if the parent raises their voice to their kid, child services and all of the other do gooders what to rush in and take the kids away and lock the parents up. Well my brother and I got some a** beatings that would make the folks at child services cringe. But guess what, were still alive, our little psyche isn't damaged and neither of us ever ended up in trouble with the law. That's because daddy was a lot scarier that the law.
OK, I'm getting myself worked up into a rant here so I'll stop now before my fingers get carpel tunnel and I can't type my reports anymore
IMHO
