Continuing the discussion.

My good friend Rachael gave me a thought-provoking comment on yesterday's post.  These are things that I admit I had considered, but worth a read if you missed it.  

"As you know, I've been giving this a lot of thought. The world we live in now is actually MUCH safe for our kids than our world was. The difference is, we have 24 hour news now and we didn't then. 

I think each generation is progressively more sheltered because each generation remembers being a kid and what it was like and and now protects their kids from it. 

I don't think it's intentional in the least. I think it's a mama thing.

We're reading "Ramona the Pest" right now, and it was written in 1955. How can I tell? Well, Beezus is 9(?) and Ramona is 4 and they walk all over the place by themselves--to the library, to Beezus's art class, to the store. When Beezus is in art class, Ramona is left to play in the sand pile BY HERSELF (and she's only 4, mind you). You would see NONE of that today, and if you did, CPS would be called in a heartbeat. 

Our children are cherished and loved and sheltered and protected and they know no other way, whether it's in school with all their drills (we want it to be automatic so if the day comes and it's not a drill, there's no freaking) or airport security. 

This may not be a bad thing. I wonder if we went and really perused history what we would find with regards to safety and our kiddos...

And, may I just say how blessed I feel to live HERE and not some middle eastern country (I'm looking at you Afghanistan and Syria)?"

Social media and the instantaneous feed that we get was a perfect example today.  I texted Rachael a photo of the USA Today story stating that the bombing suspect was in custody.  AP reported the same thing.  I think that she stopped her carpet scrubbing to investigate a little and came back a few minutes later to report that CNN said that they didn't.  

I agree that I think that our kiddo life was not as safe as what we have now.  Did I mention the time that my car door opened as my mom turned out of my grandparent's driveway?  The only reason I didn't fall out was because my sister grabbed me up.  No seat belts.  

People could freely walk in and out of schools.  Interestingly, school shootings aren't just a now thing.  (I mentioned this yesterday.)  

I remember stories of a lot more strangers offering "candy" to little children.  My cousin was almost abducted from her bus stop-- the end of the driveway.  

With social media we fail to have that shield that we had when we were kids.  If we had that shield, the misinformation that was released today would have never gone out.  They would have had to wait for it to go to print.  We also had a resistance to print a while ago.  What do I mean?  It means that not every single thing that we thought was placed on a page for someone to read that very instant it happened.  People Facebook about what they ate, where they go, who they talked to and so forth.  These were things that back in the day, you just didn't go there.  No one cared, but you didn't feel the need to share your every life morsel either.  

Security is upgraded.  I'm good with that.  Airports want your shoes off?  Fine.  Check my bag?  Fine.  I would rather K have lock down drills so that, as Rachael said, it is automatic and not a reason to freak out.  

Still, our overly media-ized society makes me sad for the days of my youth.  They were innocent.  The TV was a bit more quiet.  I walked to my grandparent's house, a mile away, on my own.  Now, I don't let K off the block without me and/or Hubs in tow.