Have Things Really Changed That Much?

When I was a kid, I would spend my free time wandering in the woods, building forts with my friends. Or we'd take our bikes and go on a day long excursion around the neighborhood, visiting various pals as we went along.

Kids today attempting such a daring daily routine of play would likely end up with Lyme Disease, fall victim of a sexual predator or two (or three), and probably finish the day either being hit by a texting teen driver or blown up by a suicide bomber.

Was the world always this frightening? Have things really changed that much since I was a kid? I don't mean to come off like some conservative ideologue waxing romantic about the good ol' days when a man was a man and a woman was a woman. I'm genuinely confused by this. How did it get so dangerous to let kids go out an play?

I don't want to let Baby J go off and do the stuff I did when I was young. By today's standards, it's a death sentence. It's no wonder folks scuttle their kids off to ballet and soccer and violin and swimming and curling. And it's no wonder that kids turn to their cell phones and social media sites to interact with one another. Getting on your bike and riding across the neighborhood is too treacherous.

I know I'm getting ahead of myself here but I have no idea what I'm going to do when Baby J wants to go off in the woods behind our home or when she wants to wander off through the neighborhood.

Maybe by then the world won't be quite as deadly.