It's never been easy being a parent, but I think the time we're living in is making it even more difficult because choices we have to make now are often against what we knew to be “normal” in our own childhood.  This is often influenced by external factors that are out of our control and against what we believe to be in the best interests of our kids.

In my youth any child who messed with me would face my mother who would give them and their mother a piece of her mind.  The offending child's mother would agree to get to the bottom of it and a begrudging apology made by the child the following day.  If my child were to be in that situation and I dared to voice a negative thought about the other child's behaviour, I'd find myself either being accused of abusive behaviour towards that child, or abused (perhaps even physically)myself by the child's mother defending her child's right to do and say what they like.

Outside of school was a completely different situation to what we have today. As a child I was allowed to play in the field behind my house. I was able to run free and safe, with my mother having no fear of my coming to harm at the hands of other people. There were frightening news reports – the Moors Murders trials were very much in the minds of mothers of that generation - but that kind of story wasn't commonplace and so they didn't get paranoid about their young children playing in a nearby park or other play area. We were however taught about not accepting sweets from strangers.

I don't want to let my children out of my sight!  I watch the news with sadness because of the freedom and joy of just running wild that has been lost to my children's generation because of the behaviour of an increasing number of child predators.  However, I refuse to allow this media frenzy on child molesters to allow my kids to lose their right to just be kids, and so I take them out to the park and I stay with them.  I know that it's not thought safe for kids to talk to strangers, so instead of telling them they can't, I teach them they can say “Hello” to people we pass as long as I'm (or another family member) is with them.   At the park, the joy on an old person's face when two enthusiastic children walk past waving and saying “Hello” is something that teaches my sons far more about humanity than any news programme can promoting fear can.

As a teenager I was allowed to attend a local youth club. I'd walk there either with friends, or by myself – even in the dark. My mother didn't have to warn me about not going somewhere else, or about accepting drinks from other people, and so on. I'm yet to face this issue but hopefully when I do the idea of a mobile phone being almost a third limb on the average teen will still be there along with services such as child locate. I can't follow a teenager around as I do my little ones, but at least technology will allow me to check where he is while at the same time allowing him an age appropriate freedom to test his wings.

Raising kids for my generation is far more difficult than it was for my mothers.   The good old days had other hardships for mothers in terms of household chores, and even cultural pressure to conform to what society thought a mother should be.  Today we have to protect our children from many things that were seldom heard of back then, but fortunately we have technologies that make our life easier – such as the mobile phones.  These technologies allow us to monitor our kids and let them grow without feeling they're living in the Big Brother house, and that's a good thing for everyone.