Predators
My boys are outside. The sun is shining and although it's a bit cold, they are happy for the chance to bounce a ball in the driveway, shoot on goal, and chase the dogs around the backyard. Yet it isn't as quite as free and easy as when I was a boy.
I grew up in a small town. I had good friends up and down the road and very often, we would come home, toss the bookbags away and ask about dinner. My mother would simply say - "Don't be late."
No one was truly concerned with predators stalking the children. This week it began with a description of a man in a white van who approached an adolescent boy. The predator didn't chase the boy down the street - he got out of his car and rang the front doorbell, knowing that parental supervision was not around.
We are a generation that grew up listening to stories on Nancy Grace. Most people I know have an opinion on JonBenet's death. 48 Hours runs a mystery each and every week - and this isn't Agatha Christie or Alfred Hitchcock - this is real live events with real live missing or murdered children.
When we were first married, I would laugh at my wife because of her paranoid fits. I still laugh now and again as she must check the doors four times before bed, but I must admit that it scares the hell out of me too. There are predators living among us and it seems as if they are picking off children one kid at a time.
I remember my dad flicking the lights to call us home. We spent as much time inside some of our friends parents' homes as we did our own. Now, unfortunately, when our kids want to spend time elsewhere we need to check for references.
Was this always happening? Somehow I doubt it. I grew up on The Nelson Family and The Waltons and Bonanza.
My kids get CSI, 48 Hours Mystery and Fear Factor.
We dumbed it down - and the predators came out of the woodwork.
I grew up in a small town. I had good friends up and down the road and very often, we would come home, toss the bookbags away and ask about dinner. My mother would simply say - "Don't be late."
No one was truly concerned with predators stalking the children. This week it began with a description of a man in a white van who approached an adolescent boy. The predator didn't chase the boy down the street - he got out of his car and rang the front doorbell, knowing that parental supervision was not around.
We are a generation that grew up listening to stories on Nancy Grace. Most people I know have an opinion on JonBenet's death. 48 Hours runs a mystery each and every week - and this isn't Agatha Christie or Alfred Hitchcock - this is real live events with real live missing or murdered children.
When we were first married, I would laugh at my wife because of her paranoid fits. I still laugh now and again as she must check the doors four times before bed, but I must admit that it scares the hell out of me too. There are predators living among us and it seems as if they are picking off children one kid at a time.
I remember my dad flicking the lights to call us home. We spent as much time inside some of our friends parents' homes as we did our own. Now, unfortunately, when our kids want to spend time elsewhere we need to check for references.
Was this always happening? Somehow I doubt it. I grew up on The Nelson Family and The Waltons and Bonanza.
My kids get CSI, 48 Hours Mystery and Fear Factor.
We dumbed it down - and the predators came out of the woodwork.
Comments