Now how did that happen?

Many years ago, when my oldest son was about seven, he was best buddies with the neighbour's son who was the same age and whose garden backed on to ours.  It was a nice little neighbourhood for kids to grow up in, with loads of other kids to play with and acres of open spaces and woodlands to roam.  I grew up like that - loads of kids around and roaming free and it was absolutely the norm. We would disappear out to play and come home god know's how many hours later filthy and starving, but we were never bored!

Like my own parents, it's probably just as well we didn't know what our kids got up to during those long hours.  Now my sons talk of trekking miles into the woods dressed as soldiers and building dens and so on.  It makes me sad to think that so many people nowadays aren't comfortable letting their kids roam because of "all the crazies about"! That is probably true but I do wonder if there are more crazies about now than before or if we just hear about it now because of the availability of instant media coverage.  I mean, when I was a kid we would never have known about a child being abducted or murdered in the States because the coverage just wasn't there.  I really don't know the answer, and I know kids have to be watched, but it will be a sad day when our kids are no longer free to run and play!

Anyhoo, one day my oldest had been out playing with Kevin and when he came home the front of his shorts were all wet.  So I asked him if he had had a little "accident" and he said "no"!  So then I asked him how come his shorts got all wet then.  He said he and Kevin had been having a competition to see who could pee the farthest.  They were standing opposite each other and Kevin won!  Somehow I wish I hadn't asked.

Illustration by Dennis Cox