Are you better or worse than you were four years ago is the perennial kudzu of politics implying, I suppose, that our elected officials are perfectly responsible for the worldwide economy in general and what goes into our shopping carts in particular.
I am committed to writing about parenting rather than policy. So I will point out what is unarguably better for your kids.
Ice: Back in the day, only the wealthiest of the wealthy could afford a cold drink in the summer. An Iced Caramel Creamy Macchiato Dolce Latte wasn’t a thing. Ice is definitely better now than generations ago.
Food: Daily bread got its name because some days there wasn’t any. Food insecurity is down a gazillion percent in this country and two gazillion percent across the globe and while one hungry person anywhere is one too many, your kids probably have to worry about too many calories rather than too few. The quality and quantity of food is better than previously.
Medicine: Treatment and prescriptions are twice as good as they were five years ago and incomparably better than the generation before. Kids and their moms seldom die in childbirth. Although, rather than gratefully acknowledging the miracles, we complain about a 45-minute wait and a 40-dollar copay. Medicine is better. Between 1870 and 1970, about three hundred million people died of small pox. Last year nobody did.
Water: Comes out of a tap. Used to come out of a river to which somebody had to walk. Availability and excellence of drinking water is better.
Now let’s look at what’s worse: your kids used to be safe inside your house. Absent the odd meteor or tornado. Whereas now, like a horror film, the danger is inside. Seemlessly and wirelessly, your kids are exposed to free-flowing ick. Your kids can’t trust pretty much anybody ever about anything. The only reason that AI bots aren’t insisting that your kids get into a car with an impaired (read: “schnockered”) underage drivers is because the technosauruses haven’t figured out how to profit from mangled teens. Scams are unprecedented and sophisticated. Since I started writing this blog I have received:
- An email from someone claiming to be dying of cancer who wants to give me $14 million dollars to distribute to charity because I am such a good person if I will only first give her my name, address, social security number, banking information and send her (could be a her, who knows?) a few hundred dollars to cover shipping costs or as a sign of good faith,
- A text from someone wanting to know if I would like to have dinner or meet them for golf (do I actually play golf?) or exchange—doubtlessly inappropriate–photos. Were I to write back this person or persons would try to involve me in a romantic liaison and steal my heart and my wallet.
Of course as a curmudgeonly 68-year-old, I am innured and amused by these morally repugnant overtures, but our elders and our adolescents frequently get ensnared to the tune of oodles of simoleans.
A generation ago, we could teach our children to help out, give the benefit of the doubt, do the right thing, make a contribution. Indeed, when I was teaching Sunday School I gave the example of the ten beggars. Some people refuse to give to any of the ten beggars because one of them could be a fake. The proper course of action is to give to all ten beggars because one of them might truly be in need.
Were I teaching that class today, I would have to help the children understand how to find the one beggar who is truly in need out of the thousands of dishonest, scamming, horrible people trying to take advantage.
Fortunately there’s an answer. How to keep your kids safe is as simple and straightforward now as it has ever been. As long as you have the kind of connection with your kids that allows them to come to you with questions, you can keep them safe from the charlatans. A child who feels comfortable asking, “does this sound legit?” won’t be taken advantage of. A kid who feels shut down and unheard is more likely to use their own imperfect judgment and may end up doing bad things on-line with bad people for bad reasons.
The good news is that we can keep our beloved children safe from ubiquitous fraudsters and still take advantage of clean water with ice. With a little good judgment, we are all significantly better off than we were generations ago.
