Anyone else miss the days where EVERY adult was your child's parent?

 

When I was growing up, I remember constantly being sent to the neighbours to borrow a jug of milk or return a cup of sugar – errands I would never even consider asking my children to do these days.

Things were different back then; neighbourhoods were more close-knit and residents were much more involved in each other's lives.

It was nothing to spend half the day in a neighbour's house admiring their new pet rabbit while your parents went about their business, safe in the knowledge SOMEONE on the road was looking after you.

Every adult on the road was essentially your parent and in the absense of your own, you answered to them and accpeted any form of discipline that was meted out – within reason, of course.

It's so different today. My children likely wouldn't recognise their neighbours in a line-up while the thought of sending my son or daughter to someone else's house for a drop of milk is incomprehensible.

The idea of a neighbour chastising my son or reprimanding my daughter would infuriate me today – ironic, considering how often I was subjected to a furious tirade from a neighbour whose garden I destroyed with a ball or heart I broke with my early morning knick-knocks.

My children are suspicious of most adults they don't know - something which I take solace from in many ways, but which ironically also upsets me from time to time.

I would love to feel comfortable enough with my neighbours to allow my children to consider their homes as welcome as ours.

I wish I had made more an effort with the people we live beside, behind and adjacent to, so my children would know what it was like to grow up in a big “neighbourhood family”.

I wish I didn't feel the need to instill fear in my children when it comes to strangers, but it's something I know is a necessary evil.

Times have changed, but sometimes I long for the days when a stranger didn't mean danger.