Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts... have times really changed so much?

[Sigarms]

I generally believe that previous generations overall were more conservative, knew each other and had a respect for God and each other. Not so today. I recently read, for example, that the overall membership in United Methodist Churches has fallen to a level below what it was in the 1930's. There may be double the population, but self governing moral restraints have been cast off, values are now learned from the television and movies, and as a result, children and their families are suffering for it and there is no longer the stablity and safety in communities that previously existed.

By your own anology, then were the 1700's more conservative and had more respect for God and each other than people of the 1930's? Were there any moral restraints in the 30's than today? Seem to remember this thing called prohibition and organized crime. Organize crime wouldn't make money unless they had people willing to pay for certain services, usually illegal.

Were we a more moral society even back in the 1950's when people could drink and drive, kill others while driving drunk, and get off scott free from the legal system?

Another question is whose repsonsibility is it that children learn their values from T.V and movies?

Heck, to some extent I agee with you. I've had small children actually hit me because they didn't get what they want. know what their parents did? Nothing other to tell the children it was wrong to hit people. Know what I told those children? "if you go around hitting people bigger than yourself and don't know how to defend yourself, you stand a good chance of getting the crap kicked out of you and going to the hospital" (a big hit with the parents by their facial expression). Personally, when I was a child, if I hit any adult (which I don't think I did), my dad would of kicked the crap out of me (and I can count and remember all the times he used my grandfathers miners belt on me and what I did) Then again, it was my fathers standing rule that I could be physically punished by any adult as long as I deserved it.

I still remember Mr. Brill in shop class and that big wood paddle of his. Then again, I could of ended up killing someone by accident, and I deserved that sore butt (and Charlie Killian got it that day as well). You don't horse around with mechanical equipment. Lesson learned.

Pick almost any movie, tv or video game and it is likely loaded with sex, violence and behavior which, if lived out in real life, would end in jail, death or other dire consequences.

Can't say I disagree with you there. However, if you take the time to look, there are actually still well written movies still being produced without sex or violence. Interesting as well that the Book that most Christians base their faith on actually has a lot of sex and violence in it, and some of the biggest "characters" in the book (exclduing Jesus) were actually some pretty bad people before God entered their lives.

Talk about young people and where our society is heading, every one looks to the bad, with drugs and money. Seems that no one ever looks for the good. Tim Tebow and Myron Rolle are prime examples.

 

[scott_vt]

I'm turning 60 this year. I grew up in a small town in east Tennessee, and from as early as I can remember I could wander anywhere I wanted to without supervision. I came home for food....most of the time. Sometimes I'd eat at my friend's house and we'd have whatever Granny Florence wanted to let us have. When I went anywhere around town, or out into the surrounding area, I'd just follow my instincts, I suppose. We crossed everyones property without thinking about it. Why walk around a block when you can cut through the neighbor's yards....they didn't care, and neither did we. I had a dog named Kennedy that was a cocker/dachshund mix. Great dog. He was never penned up and wandered all through town just like us. No problem, since everyone's dogs did the same. We used to walk down to the Tennessee river and play on the bluffs and in the caves. We were on private property, but if we ever saw anyone all we got was a wave and a "say hi to your mom" or something.

Is there anywhere this would now be possible? Some of us bought property just so our kids could run around a little like we could, but I had hundreds, even thousands I guess, of acres I could walk across without worrying. These days, if I saw someone on my property I'd wonder what he was doing there. When my grandkids are over, they stay on my property like there was a physical boundary surrounding it, though there isn't on three sides. A long time ago, I remember one of our "what do you do with trespassers" threads, where I allowed as how I wouldn't care if kids came across my property to reach a creek or whatever (though in fact I have no such interesting feature on my place). Boy did I get reamed for that. Now we're all into having our own property and keeping everyone else off, and I include myself, but I sure am glad all those farmers whose land I used to play on didn't care that a bunch of kids thought they owned the world.

Chuck

Good Mornin Chuck,
Well Im not to far away from your age , actually Im closing in on 58 sometime this year ! And much of what you remember I remember as well ! The local farmers that were the large land holders never had a problem with the neighborhood kids trapsing all over their property as long as we didnt damage anything ! Although I did screw up a few times , the farmer had been dropping fresh cow manure, kind of on the wet side, out in one of his fields. My buddy and I thought how much fun we could have throwing stones out into the pile and watching the manure fly all over. Well as most of you farm people know, stones and spreaders didnt get along too well together back then ! We got caught, and to this day I remember digging all those stones out of that manure pile ! Not a fun job by any means, but I never pulled that stunt again ! And believe it or not, even after that stunt I could still go on the farmers property ! To this day Im still friends with this man and we occassionally have a laugh over something that happened almost 50 years ago ! Even though Im only up at my Vt property a couple times a month, I allow the few neighbors I have to walk through my property, and the people that live down below me have horses, and i allow them to ride through my fields. If I got sued I might change my outlook on all of that, but I dont think that would happen !

 

[texbaylea]

In 1950 there were only 151 million people in the U.S. Today, there are over 300 million people in the U.S. That's double the population... AND.... double the troublemakers. So, I have to be twice as cautious with my kids as my parents were with me....

There. I hope that explains everything to everyone.

I think the major cause of all the anxiety about the dangers of our modern society is the news media's mantra of "if it bleeds; it leads". If there is not enough blood and gore to report on locally the TV news programs will report something that happened across the country. It gives the impression of much greater crime, etc. than really exist in the local area and scares people more. Just let there be a gun involved and it will be reported for days on end.

The too much of our current population is too poorly educated to be able analyze what is going on. Commercial advertising also does the same thing thus all the ads for sanitizing products that make the situation worse in the long run. We need all these little exposures to challenge our immune systems and keep them in top shape.

I could continue this rant but will have mercy on you.

Vernon

 

[Ken_CT]

Texbaylea,
I agree with you completely. Fear sells. Look at what 911 did for duct tape.

 

[rox]

I'm turning 60 this year. I grew up in a small town in east Tennessee, and from as early as I can remember I could wander anywhere I wanted to without supervision. I came home for food....most of the time. Sometimes I'd eat at my friend's house and we'd have whatever Granny Florence wanted to let us have. When I went anywhere around town, or out into the surrounding area, I'd just follow my instincts, I suppose. We crossed everyones property without thinking about it. Why walk around a block when you can cut through the neighbor's yards....they didn't care, and neither did we. I had a dog named Kennedy that was a cocker/dachshund mix. Great dog. He was never penned up and wandered all through town just like us. No problem, since everyone's dogs did the same. We used to walk down to the Tennessee river and play on the bluffs and in the caves. We were on private property, but if we ever saw anyone all we got was a wave and a "say hi to your mom" or something.

Is there anywhere this would now be possible? Some of us bought property just so our kids could run around a little like we could, but I had hundreds, even thousands I guess, of acres I could walk across without worrying. These days, if I saw someone on my property I'd wonder what he was doing there. When my grandkids are over, they stay on my property like there was a physical boundary surrounding it, though there isn't on three sides. A long time ago, I remember one of our "what do you do with trespassers" threads, where I allowed as how I wouldn't care if kids came across my property to reach a creek or whatever (though in fact I have no such interesting feature on my place). Boy did I get reamed for that. Now we're all into having our own property and keeping everyone else off, and I include myself, but I sure am glad all those farmers whose land I used to play on didn't care that a bunch of kids thought they owned the world.

Chuck

I enjoyed all th posts, Chuck yours was really interesting adn kind of relaxing. Our previous home was built high on a steep hill and we were on a cul du sac. One day I was home in the afternoon and was surprised to see middle school kids walking through my backyard, then over to the side yard and then into the street in front. I watched them with their school backpacks and then figured out that what they were doing was getting off the bus a stop early becuase the bus stopped high up in elevation. The kids on our street had to walk down to the bottom of the hill for thier bus stop, so the kids got off one stop early walked through the side yard of our back neighbor then walked through our yard and were in the street without having to walk up that steep hill. It id give me pause but then I jsut thought, "oh what the heck, they are jsut cutting through" It wasn't very long until our back neighbor planted a spruce tree right where the kids cut through from the back neighbors yard to our yard. To each his own I guess but really they weren't hurting anything and if I was thier age I probably would have done the same thing.

Your post Chuck reminded me of those neighborhood kids and what they lost. I guess nowadays more people are like our previous backyard neighbors. No place to roam anymore.

Our current back yard, well it is a farm so it is not a yard but the neighbors behind us, their 12 year old boy snuck up on me while I was on a ladder prunning trees and threw a fire cracker at me, scared the living yuo know what out of me about 2 years ago. When my husband came home we both went over and talked with the boy and his parents and he did get cuffed over top of his head by his dad, nothing abusive just a hand cuffing on top of his head. We also made it clear that even though we were not happy getting firecrackers lobbed on us (he snuck in like a spy and threw it) we also let him know that he was still welcome to roam our property just to beahve. Well we didn't see him for about 2 years on our property but then he got a mini bike. We knew when school was over because every day after school he rode that bike vroom vroom vroom. After a while he probably got bored with his loop around his folks property so he came tearing through our property and made a bigger loop. We didn't care, still don't care, he's not really a bad kid, and we have plenty of land for him to ride on. He made a little mistake earlier it is not the end of the world after all (however it is a good thing I didn't fall off the ladder as I am sure his parents discussed with him after we left ).

 

[buckeyefarmer]

A good book on this subject is "Last Child in the Woods" . It talks about how children today don't learn the outdoor skills that we learned as kids, mainly because today's children aren't outside anymore.

 

[Bedlam]

What did Duck tape get from911?
Darn guy gets brought into almost any discussion LOL

 

[ultrarunner]

A good book on this subject is "Last Child in the Woods" . It talks about how children today don't learn the outdoor skills that we learned as kids, mainly because today's children aren't outside anymore.

I will have to pick up a copy... thanks for suggestion.

 

[scott_vt]

A good book on this subject is "Last Child in the Woods" . It talks about how children today don't learn the outdoor skills that we learned as kids, mainly because today's children aren't outside anymore.

Good Evenin Buckeyfarmer,
Yep I agree, its kind of too bad IMO, but just the way it is ! Although some really insightful young people are havin a ball out there and they dont have to fight any crowds !

What did Duck tape get from911?
Darn guy gets brought into almost any discussion LOL

Good Evenin Bedlam,
Do you mean this guy ? TractorByNet.com - View Profile: Ductape

Oh he is a good guy !

 

[dmccarty]

I think the major cause of all the anxiety about the dangers of our modern society is the news media's mantra of "if it bleeds; it leads". If there is not enough blood and gore to report on locally the TV news programs will report something that happened across the country. It gives the impression of much greater crime, etc. than really exist in the local area and scares people more. Just let there be a gun involved and it will be reported for days on end.
...

People say the Party X is the problem or that Party Y is the problem. I can agree with that statement. The bigger problem is the press since if it bleeds it leads and they favor one party. They are not Journalists but propagandists.

On the other hand I do think our children are more at risk these days because of technology.

Pedaphiles are very often family members or friends not the stranger danger man. Though stranger danger is out there. Pedaphiles will often marry or befriend families with children as well as take jobs to get near children. Make sense right? Pedaphiles target children who do not have a strong family or children that don't have a strong network of friends. Its how the Pedaphile goes from stranger to "friend." Nothing new about how they work.

What has changed is the Internet and cell phones. If a strange man/women showed up at the door wanting to talk with your child what would be one's reaction? The Internet allows the man/women to get past the door without a parent easily knowing. Myspace just removed 90,000 sex offenders from their system, twice what was expected. Why where they on Myspace? Where they there to make "friends?"

A cell phone also allows contact that is easily hidden from the parent(s). These technologies allow fairly anonymous communication. And communication that can span many miles if not across county or farther. Twenty years ago child predetors where local and limited in contacts. This is just not true anymore.

The Internet does allow one to go see if there are convicted offenders in your area. In our city house we had several offenders within a mile or so of us. One man was just a block away. EVERYONE knew him. But what EVERYONE did not know is a few pieces of information that makes me think his neighbor, who was not a convicted offender, was also involved as a child predator.

These people are out there.

Later,
Dan