Oh my how things have changed!!!

Things certainly have changed.When I was 4 years old I'd just tell my parents that I was going out to ride my bike or go to the playground and they wouldn't worry nor did they have reason to.When I was seven my mom would give me 15 cents and bus tickets and I'd go downtown by myself to go to the "Good Deed Radio Club". My folks didn't worry nor did they have reason to. (Can you imagine having something called the Good Deed Club now?)My mom walked me to school on my first day of grade one and never again. No reason to worry.Kids are far more sophisticated today but they aren't any more mature. I personally don't think that's a good combination.Sure some things have improved in some ways. Our standard of living has gone up for one thing, women have more options, but on average I have no doubt that our quality of life has gone down.

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

i think defining what our quality of life is, much less has it gone up or down relative to earlier times is subjective IMOi consider the quality of life better than it was at least as far as knowledge goes and options to learn by, TV for instance has led to many learning things they would never have learned without it, good and bad, everything is a double-edged sword

Indeed.My niece has been researching the family tree and discovered that all four sets of her great-grandparents conceived their first child before they were married (all around the turn of the Twentieth Century). In the case of my Dad's mother she ended up never marrying the father.So much for Victorian morality and respectablity! Mind you that veneer could have a sharp edge - my maternal grandmother had to leave the town her family lived in and move to another one twenty miles away when she became pregnant.

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Oops! Wrong Planet

But what's the "reason" to worry in today's society?Forty or fifty years ago, people didn't worry about their kids being abducted, etc. because they never heard about such things happening. Today, if a kid is molested in any way, anywhere in the world, it's on every front page and every TV set within hours.It isn't happening more, we just hear about it more.If you think we are less safe today, read about some of the horrific "true crimes" that happened a hundred years ago.

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How many parents let their kids out on their own anywhere? How many parents are afraid to let their kids walk to school on their own? They must figure there's something to worry about. If a kid had been abducted 50 years ago it would have been all over the papers. It might have taken an additional day to get into them, but it would have been a much bigger story because it was so rare. Edited by GDR, : No reason given.

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Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

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Well these days are gone. The woman (both parents) almost has to work now, just so we can survive. That's what pisses me off.I wish I could stay home and raise my kids, and so does my wife.

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Well, then, lobby for the ERA.That way employers would be legally required to pay women equal pay for equal work.

The limited research I've done on this suggests it is true that the level of child disappearance, abuse, murder etc. is not significantly different to historical times and yet - in the UK at least - there is almost mass hysteria about it.For about the last ten years or so it has reached the point where it is better not to engage children in conversation or play as you are likely to get a suspicious or hostile reaction from their parents.

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Oops! Wrong Planet

The saddest indictment on our modern society in Oz is that we now have to ask administrators if we can take photos of our kids playing sport--and be accompanied by an official when we do it!

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If a kid had been abducted 50 years ago it would have been all over the papers. It might have taken an additional day to get into them, but it would have been a much bigger story because it was so rare.

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Well, I think I'd like to compare some statistics from the 50's and now. Do you have any?

I would be very surprised if any existed. There was uniform definitions, no uniform reporting system, not all places even kept records.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

and that amendment is so much more worthwhile than one on marriage.since when did we decide we should insert christian morality into a secular constitution?

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All a man's knowledge comes from his experiences

And who says S & M wasn't alive and well in the 1950s...

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"The good Christian should beware the mathematician and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell." - St. Augustine

The honeymooners back in the day.... Now we have Nip-Tuck...I don't see the difference between the eras, do you? lol..

That's pretty much my understanding of it.The one thing that isconstant is that abuse and murder is far more likely to occur in the home than by some random stranger...

Since we decided to insert our "secular" constitution into our Christian morality.True Christianity (the religion) requires you to be free (secular).
True Christianity (in your heart) does not.Somewhere along the lines that got confused. But the religious zealots are the cause of that, just like the birth of most freedoms.Why does it have to be either or? Isn't that just being lazy?