We have a large camphor tree in our front yard. When the neighborhood kids (and mine) were younger it always had children hanging of it...so much so that we mulched underneath it because grass refused to grow and the kids got covered in dirt. Kids fell. Nobody sued.
I guess I'm lucky enough to have a very nice neighborhood. I know most of my neighbors. Our house has a front porch and all the neighbors know if our torches are lit we're sitting out...come on by...and they do.
When my daughter was younger she and the two other girls her age would vanish for hours at time during the summer. On bikes...I didn't worry...there were three of them and the area was safe.
My daughter walked to elementary and middle schooll 90% of the time. I drove her to high school until she got her license because school started at 7:10 am and I really didn't want her walking alone in the dark. She walked home.
Shame on me for taking such risks with her personal safety!! Letting her outdoors..walking to school...climbing trees...take away my 'mother license'!!!!
One more thing...when I was in high school our band director had 'roving' hands (I played flute and he was a little too concerned with my 'breathing technique') a quick turn to the right and cracked him across the nose with the end of the flute after that my breathing was just fine I guess (lol)...eventually someone turned him in. Rumors flew. He quitely left that school and went 'elsewhere'. It did not make the news or the papers. If that happended now it would (at least here) be news for weeks.
I don't think there are significantly more gropers and molesters running around..I think we just hear about it more
Windsor (aka Loni)
a wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age