A Difference in the Worlds...

My Hubby and I were born in 1980. Yes, just a little over 28 short years ago.

My son was birthed in 2000 (yet another Millenium baby).

My daughter in 2002 (a 9/11 "world is ending" freak out, I'm sure).

What a different world they are growing up in than we did.

Dear Hubby and I grew up in different worlds even though we were born the same year and less than a month apart. He was raised in the rural backwoods of SoDak. Me, the large city environment of Colo. He ran free with his siblings, played hide-and-seek in abandoned cars and learned how to ride a motorcycle at the age of six. I spent my hours in the seclusion of an apartment complex, played hide-and seek in the laundry room and needed an escort to go to the park. He spent all 13 years of school in one school district. Me, I attended six schools and lived in no less than 9 houses before graduating from high school.

So far in their lives, both children have attended only one school district. Bubba has lived in three seperate places (two apartments and a house) in two different towns and Teensy in only two both in the same town. They have a radius of about 3 blocks they are allowed to roam freely as long as they check in on time but they spend most of their time playing Hide-and-Seek in our basement or the houses of their friends. They are relatively sheltered even though we live in a smaller town in a rural state. Why? Times, they have a changed.

1980...
The world population was a meek 4.453 billion people with only 227,224,681 of those people living in the United States. The violent crime rate was at 59.5 per 1,000. People lived to be 73.7 years old and the unemployment rate was 7.1%. A household made a median amount of $17,710 dollars and a postage stamp only cost 15 cents. Those were the good old days.

Now...
The world population had soared to over 6.7 billion people. Life expectancy has gone down to 65.8 years old. Unemployment and underemployment are at 30%. Children are shooting other children in schools and terrorists have destroyed our security in the air. We have been in a constant war, sending our troops to perish in a desert in the name of freedom, for 7 years now. Postage stamps cost us 42 cents and gasoline at it's all-time high was over $3.00/gallon. An already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. And now we on on the verge of another Great Depression.

And one wonders why my children are more sheltered? Have you seen this world lately, people? I have. And they will soon enough, but for now I would like them to enjoy their childhood...within a 3 block radius of my home. That is called protective parenting...and I'm all for it.