Worrying about the children is all part and parcel of being a parent. We do live in an increasingly violent society but the media plays to our deepest fears. It would be nice if the stories were a little more balanced to help us be a bit more positive.
I hear this a lot. i do not think it so.
My grandfather was born in 1892 and volunteered in 1914. Was serially shot at without result, spent most of 4 years in the trenches, lost some siblings and signed the Peace Pledge within years of demob. remained a pacifist for life.
My father was born in 1921 and signed the Peace Pledge as a teenager. Volunteered on leaving school and was serially shot at without result. Lost a sibling in the hostilities.
My mother married her first husband in 1943 and was a widow within months.
I've been a 'spectator' during and immediately after wars, but always heavily protected and was only there because I wanted to be there.
I feel that I've lived in (for northern Europeans) one of the safest eras in modern times.
My children are 18, 16 and 13. They are exposed to risk, but nothing like that which faced other generations.
The media point is a good one, although the knife has two edges. My wife was living in Moscow in Gorbachev's early years when there was an earthquake in Armenia. A woman at a bus stop read of it and said "This would never have happened under Brezhnev".
) I dropped my son off at my Mums, she told me off for not wearing a h*lmet. I told it wasn't really neceserry and anyway it made my head sweaty. The next day she rang to say she'd be worried about me all night and had I considered a cotton scalf under helmet to prevent sweatiness? Bless!!!
