I think that people tend to look at the past through rose-colored glasses. In this day of rapid communication, news of a kidnapped child can spread throughout the world in minutes, whereas in the 1960s, the same news could take days to spread throughout the community.
As a child, I managed to fend off three kidnapping attempts, in the 1960s and early 1970s. My mother let me play all over the neighborhood, but she had also told me to never take candy from strangers. And it is that advice, as dumb and cliché as it sounds, that saved me from being kidnapped and murdered.
I think that helicopter parenting, where kids are NOT taught to look out for danger and their parents are always nearby, is certainly not better than it was 50 years ago. But I don't think the dangers have significantly changed.
Where were you raised??? I don’t ever remember any kidnappings around where I was raised...Everyone all around knew each other and a parent was always close at hand that knew all the kids...
Today, a lot of people don’t even know the people next door much less across the street...
That is certainly true. Life was a tad harder for many people. I didn't eat in a restaurant until I was almost 16. Not that we starved, there just wasn't a lot of money to around...and besides my father was very tight-fisted.
When I was three years old there was a kidnapping that took place close to our home that drew national attention. That was the Evelyn Hartley case. She was a 15 year who was kidnapped while she was babysitting. She was never found and presumed dead after a few years. The house where she was kidnapped was just a few blocks from where I lived.
But I didn't find out about it until I was older. We still went all over creation even though we were very young. Parents just didn't worry about kids as much back then.