I can remember as far back as the age of two. I distinctly remember a trip to the Toronto Zoo where I ran the entire area of the enormous zoo in what my mother said was less than 2 hours. I can remember being five years old and walking to school, which was quite a bit away from our home, but mother showed me the way the first day, and after that, I was on my own!
I can remember playing outside with my friends as a small child and not having to worry about getting in before dark so the boogey man wouldn't come out and get me.
So many things that I remember about life as a child, are so far from the lives of my own children now!
Having two children of my own, one who is now 12 and the other 9, I find it hard to believe that I was permitted to do half of the things I did as a child, on my own. I mean, my children are still being driven to and from school each day, unless on the rare occasion, I decide that it is safe for them to travel in a pack. I find it almost impossible to let them out of my sight for fear of what predator might be lurking about.
When I was a child in school, there was the occasional bully. You would have to worry about the bully meeting you after school, to have a good old fashioned fist fight. You might get a black eye, or perhaps a red cheek…but I didn't have the worries that my children are faced with.
Everyday, I turn on the news to hear about some parent who has lost their child to some sort of brutal turn of violence. A child was shot for no apparent reason, someone kidnapped and raped a young girl before they stabbed her to death. She had been walking home from school! A man pulled out his penis on a playground and scarred the memories of five innocent children that had been playing on the slide!
Just last week, I had a notice sent home from my children's school to inform me of a predator that had been living in our area and had been arrested for distributing child pornography on the internet!
Last summer, I was watching TV. in my living room, when a commotion from outside got me up and to the door to find out what was going on. As I opened the door I became instantly aware of a crowd of about 100 children, some as young as 3 or 4, marching to a neighbor's home. All of the children were carrying a weapon of some sort. They were out to get one of the boy's in the house. What were they going to do with their chains, bats and knives?
This behavior concerns me. If this is what my children have to contend with as they grow up, what is to become of them? If this is what all children have to contend with, what is society in for?
I can remember as a child, that the news was on twice a day. There was never any exposure to blood, guts and gore, as shown on the news now. There was information given, without the “big picture”!
Is it the increase in the air time of the news casting, the shift in the way the news is portrayed, that contributes to the cause of this crime increasing society we live in?
Is it the fact that children with innocent minds, cannot escape the visions of violence portrayed in the media and therefore have the seeds planted within them at an early age.
There are many contributing factors to this problem. The question is,
How are we going to save our kids?
