Do you think it was easier to be a parent when you were in middle or highschool?

I went to an inner city school, and apparently my school had all these problems too, I just didn't know about it. My mom once told me how some kids had been stabbed in the golf course next to my school and I told her she had to be crazy, because there was nothing wrong with my school. So yeah, mostly I was just naive. But I'm still rather young. Actually this year would be my 10th reunion from graduating high school. Those older than me probably were a lot safer.

I grew up in a small town, so things were different. Hicks and hayseeds, however, have their own issues. I think the more people are packed together, the worse things will seem to be. More schools of smaller sizes might be an improvement.

When I was in school we fewred the principle because we know if we did anything wrong they would use the big pattle on our behinds. But that is just about all we feared. School was a safe place to be. Today kids are afriad all the time of what will happen next. The schools are not a safe place for them.

We had it easy. There were no bombs, or threats then. We just heard it on the news or noticed that there were a lot of homes where the men were away fighting the war. So violence was not near. We had a moral upbringing then. No one disrespected God, no one was angry if someone read a few verses of the Bible then, and the parents stood with the teachers. If you were bad, the teacher gave you detention and when you got home, your father either gave you a spanking or you were grounded. The latter was worse. Our parents had it easier. Now unless your kids go to a Christian school or a private school, you have to have armed guards or searches of the lockers every so often.

I don't know how naive you were, but I felt very safe in middle and high school. I walked home on my own a lot of times and neither my parents nor I thought anything of it. We didn't have any security guards and had a few fights in the school and that was about it. My parents didn't worry. Not on the other hand, I consider my kids safety to and from school, at sporting events, you name it. Just have to have to be a little bit watchful.

I know where I grew up and went to high school we did not have these problems. I am not sure about other places. Right now we live in an area where there are none of these things going on, thank goodness. I think it all depends on where you live.

I think parenting is hard regardless, each generation has their own set of issues to deal with. However I do believe it is harder now to have kids in school than it was before, with more single parent households and parents that have to be a slave to their jobs to put food on the table there is not as much supervision and parental influence as there used to be. This leads more and more of our youth to find acceptance in other places, and not always the right places. I have a daughter that enters 7th grade this year, she's gone to the same school for two years and it is still awkward for me to "check in" at the security desk when I go there, and to see police in the hallways. To her this is normal. I never had to wear a picture id to get on the school bus like she does. I knew my bus drivers name, as well as the names of all my classmates. She doesn't. It's a sad commentary on the world today. I'm not sure we were naive as much as we were just "uneducated" in the sense of what is wrong with the world around us. With the invention of 24 hour news channels, cell phones, the internet, etc..it's easier for this generation to have access to all things good or bad. I'm sure our parents didn't breathe easier, it's all parents job to worry about their kids, it just seems the sets of problems we face now weigh heavier than theirs did.