No matter what generation a person is born in, the one following behind them will always be more protected then they were. Some of it comes from the technology that advances every year; some of it may be from the over publicized kidnappings. I believe most of it comes from parents trying to protect their kids from what they had gone through as children. Also more mothers are working today than ever before. That leaves more children in daycare centers and off the streets. To say that children today are overprotected is an overstatement. I do believe that they are more protected today, but as we go on each generation will be more protected than the last. .
Seeing a kidnapping on television was a rare occurrence when I was a child. It was something America was ashamed of, and tried to cover up. We didn't see it until the child was either found alive, or unfortunately found dead. Now it's not only shown on television, but heard on the radio, and can be seen on signs on major highways. This creates overprotective parents, who drill into their children's head that all strangers are bad. No longer do you see a child smile and say "Hi" to people in a local supermarket. Children don't go anywhere alone anymore without the watchful eye of a parent. At the playground, riding a bike, or even in someone's driveway one of the parents is always visible. .
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There has always been working mothers, but in today's generation it's much more prevalent than before. This leaves children under the age of five in a daycare. Daycare means behind a locked door, inside a building, inside a locked fence. When I was young and in daycare we had one teacher; our playground was in a huge open field. Now there are at least two teachers and the playgrounds now are fenced in. Some elementary schools still have a playground in an open field, but they also have four to five assistant teachers surrounding it. All daycare centers have shaded windows, with some kind of screening outside of them.
