Baby Boomer

In recent months, I have made it a habit of curiosity to read the posts that readers enter at the end of online news articles. Some are thoughtful and sympathetic to the subject of the article. Many are deliberately challenging, as if the person posting is merely throwing a rock in a pond just to watch the ripples. Others are downright insulting, calling people "idiots" and "morons" for sport and/or are generally racist. Why does this happen? Largely because the people can post anonymously. No one will ever know who they are. Computers do that to folks. They feel entitled to say things that they would NEVER say to anyone in person. And so it is.

But there is more to the story. There seems to be a horrible desire to place blame in today's society. An 8-year-old boy was stuck and killed by lightning while out night-fishing with his father at 3:00 AM. Instantly, the posts started with "What's a boy of that age doing out at that hour? Bad parenting!" A parent allows her young son to go back to their car at a football game to get something. They find the boy dead, with his neck caught in the power window. "How could a parent allow this? Bad parenting!" A girl gets raped on her way to or from school. "Where were the parents??" As a teacher of 39 years, I understand how parental inattention can cause problems, but sometimes things just happen, ya know?

My own family experienced one of these deals before I was born. Back in 1945, my 15-month-old sister was in the care of my grandparents while my parents taught. Her crib was pushed up against a window that was covered with Venetian blinds. (There are warnings on those things now, but back then, who knew?) The looped cord from the blinds were within Barbie's reach. She was supposed to be napping, but somehow got the cord wrapped around her neck and lost her footing. When my grandmother went in to check on her, she was dead. They did everything known to medical science back then, to no avail. The newspaper reported my grandparents as "prostrate with grief". My parents never once blamed my grandparents. In fact, they faulted themselves because Mom wasn't home taking care of the children, herself. (That was as big thing back then.) There was a Coroner's Inquest that ruled the death "accidental". Today, I'm quite certain that my family would have been fried in the court of public opinion...

But think about this:
As a pre-K kid, I played, alone, in a vacant lot down the block from my house. No one supervised me.
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, my girlfriend and I were allowed to take public transportation to the YMCA in Danville, IL, for swimming lessons. We even had to make a bus transfer, and did it quite well on our own.
At age 10, in Japan, my mother allowed me to be in downtown Sasebo by myself for some function, with a few yen to hail a cab on my own to wend my way home.
When my daughter was in KDG, she walked to school from a caregiver's with a friend. By 3rd grade, she was allowed to walk to school with two of her neighborhood buddies.
I often watch the Andy Griffith Show on TV, where Andy and Aunt Bea allow Opie to be off with his friends, unsupervised. Even Beaver on Leave it to Beaver is out with his buddies after school, and no one worries about him until it gets late.

So...what's up with that? Is the world so much more dangerous now that we can't let our children out of our sight? Or are we just so much more sensitive to law suits that we can't leave any little thing to chance? As we reel in our children, they lose their innocence and sense of fun. Have I lived too long? Have things changed that much??

Yeah, they have. We live in a different time and space. I'm not sure I like it very much, but (thankfully) I live in a community that feels somewhat safe. I hope I don't live so long that all of that changes. I choose to believe that we still look after each other and each other's children. With my grandchildren living here, I am constantly aware of what COULD happen...but there is no way to prevent everything. I just pray to God that nothing bad happens here!

Meg is flying to San Francisco tomorrow. Please, God...let her get there and back safely!