Ok, maybe on the back of my last post, an article about pedophile hysteria seems a little odd, but what can I say? I’m quirky.

These days, fewer and fewer people want to take the risk of working with children, due to the belief that everyone is a pedophile. And now, people don’t even want to help children for fear of some stupid legal repercussion.

I remember when I was a kid in the ‘burbs, there was a Block Parent sign in every other window. When I was a toddler in the gutter tenements of Montreal, the Greek and Italian grandmothers sat on the porches and all the kids – regardless of who owned them – were under their domain. Get in a fight, someone’s baba whacked you across the back of the head and marched you home. Fall and cut yourself, and you were taken into someone’s kitchen and patched up before being given a hug and some juice and sent on your way.

Those days are over.

A few years ago, I was on my way home from the subway station. A mom with a baby in a pram and a toddler on a Big Wheel were on the sidewalk with me. Toddler wheeled on ahead of mom, keeping pace alongside me, while mom frequently stopped to check baby’s soother or bonnet. As Mr. Big Wheel and I were about to pass a driveway from one of the condo buildings, a car lurched out over the curb. I automatically grabbed the kid across his chest and prevented him from being hit. He just glared at me, as I had broken his hard-earned momentum. I turned to his mother, quickly catching up to us, and said “I’m sorry.” After all, we’ve been conditioned in the last 15-20 years not to touch another person’s children. Obviously the mother laughed at me for apologizing, but I was saddened that the apology was as instinctive as the rescue had been.

Life is very different from what it was when I was little:

Many people fear helping a child in need in case witnesses think an attempt is being made to abduct the youngster, a UK survey suggests.

A total of 44% of men and 28% of women told researchers they would be wary of helping a child for this reason.

The research also suggests 79% of adults believe community spirit has weakened since they were children.

The survey of more than 2,000 adults and children was carried out by ICM for children’s charity Play England.

Nearly half (47%) of the adults questioned said it was unsafe for children to play out without supervision, while one in three parents said they were concerned they would be judged by their neighbours if they let their children play out in this way.

No wonder kids are fatter today than they were a generation ago. I’m a prime example of this: When our cottage was sold, I didn’t swim or bike or frolic as much as I had before. The pounds started to pile on. It’s been a struggle ever since. Parental paranoia is a major factor when it comes to childhood obesity.

So is multiculturalism. Or at least, modern multiculturalism. These days immigrants don’t make any effort at all to integrate, which means neighbors can go years without ever introducing themselves to one another. The days of the Greek grannies on the front porches are over in many neighborhoods. So if neighbors don’t know one another, they don’t trust each other with their kids.

Not every neighborhood suffers in that way, but many do. I’ve seen Asian and Jamaican families readily assist lost or injured kids from other cultures. Other cultures are more insular, including Arabs and Eastern Europeans. This isn’t a study; it’s my own observation. I wonder what the answer is. What will give kids more autonomy and security to play?

Hopscotch is NOT a beverage