You make an excellent point about remarks on good mannered children, as opposed to the norm of the past about the poor mannered ones. My husband and I are continually complimented on our child's behavior in public.......nowif she would just behave that way at home and school :)
I was born in 1960, and would have been in serious dire straits if I behaved in public the way I see some children behave now. Buton the other hand I have a close friend, who is only 24, and her children are just as well mannered and well behaved in public as my child is.
The exceptions always exist. ;-)