To be genuinely scared of the world we live in

Does anyone choose to be born?

This is one of the main reasons we decided not to have children. There is nothing about the modern world that I would want to inflict on a human who hadn't chosen to be here.

Try to think of the two men who ran in and tried to disarm the attacker. And the dance teacher who shielded the children.

and all the people who came out today in Southport to clear up the mess.

There is sooo much good in this world.

Since this attack I cannot sleep properly in the night. I used to live in Eastern Europe until 3 years ago and never heard of such things there in all my life or anything closer to that. I am terrified now as this was too barbaric to comprehend. I feel lost and I am terriffied for my kids. I wish I could feel safe again but I am in shock now following this tragedy.

I used to live in Bolton, so glad I got out.
I feel fairly safe where I live now but for how long?
I have a 19 Yr old ds, quite glad I don't have a dd tbh

I am curious why the police and our law is so gentle to criminals .

Well there is a mentally ill man on my road who attacked neighbours with a hammer a few years ago. Luckily no one was injured as they could run faster than he could. He did huge damage to property though. The police and mental health services have done nothing about him since and he still lives there having ‘mental health’ episodes every 6 months or so…the last one punching a window of an ambulance that came to collect him.

In addition to this when I was a child a man tried to abduct me on my way home from school. He didn’t manage it as I could run faster than him. I honestly think members of the public should be able to defend themselves with something like a mace / pepper spray. You need to be ultra aware of your surroundings. Makes me want to do self defence classes and get a large dog. I think the UK will end up like parts of the US where there are gated communities and lots of no go areas.

Why is it becoming harder to have faith that the majority of people are good people because one nutter has done a terrible, terrible thing?

I feel the same. The amount of anti-social behavior, violence, and robbery has just soared. You know what, if having CCTV cameras everywhere can help the police catch the perpetrators, I don’t mind giving up a bit of my privacy in exchange for safety. I am a law-abiding citizen and nice towards everyone. Why should I have to worry about being physically or verbally attacked when I go out?

Perhaps you should have paid attention at school.

@FiddlyDiddlyDee cool story bro but what's this got to do with innocent children being mass murdered

The world has always been violent. Children were far more likely to be victims of random violence 100 and 500 years ago than they are now. It's more shocking because it's rare. Surely you know this?

Being constantly anxious and restricting the lives of your children is letting murdering scum win. So I won't. I will be living my life just as I always have, in crowds, travelling solo, going to concerts and so on.

I won't let men frighten me away from my life.

Just because you feel it's a huge step backwards doesn't mean that it is.

We've been fortunate to have peace for the the last 80 years or so, but have managed to use it to create amongst other things an unsustainable amount of luxury distractions for ourselves which is out of control and can't continue.

We have no right to live like this at the expense of others on the planet, and the planet itself, so it's not surprising that thing are arising to tear down our way of life.

Nature is a cycle of destruction and recreation, it's not just an ever evolving upward line on a graph. What we're seeing may well be the planets way of correcting our behaviour or even letting us know we've outstayed out welcome and it's time to go. That may not be progress in the way we interpret things now, but that doesn't mean it isn't progress in the grander scheme of things.

I feel the same OP, it's just shocking and so scary. I'm not an anxious person generally but I live rurally and am rarely in big town/cities or crowded places. I used to find it very exciting, now I can't help feeling anxious whenever I'm in a crowded place. Even children's concerts/pantomimes etc I find myself looking to see where my nearest exit is and wondering how I would get out quickly.

The world is no different than it has ever been. In fact, it's considerably better..... 200 years ago, there was a very high chance that your children would die in infancy from some (now eradicated or controlled) disease.

Worrying about something that will probably never happen is completely pointless. Just live your life....what will be, will be.

Exactly this. It’s heartbreaking and I feel the same as the OP.

Mental illness.

Are women safer now than they were even 10 years ago. All this incel stuff has made some very hateful contexts for women. The hatred appears to be also about being over 30 not being pretty enough, being too independent. Hopefully, some balance will be the norm again.

It IS shocking because it is not the world we live in.

This is extremely rare.

To be fair, this is actually a very safe time to be living it. Murder rates in rural England during the middle ages were similar to those in the worst inner city areas on the planet today. Criminals are more likely to be caught than ever before - I genuinely can't remember a traditional serial killer news story since the Yorkshire Ripper (one where the offender is known to be at large but their identity is unknown, I don't count someone like Lucy Letby as a "classic" serial killer because people weren't aware she was doing it until she wasn't).

I think there's probably more "random" killing these days where there is no particular motive other than wanting to kill, the victims being found largely by chance. That's certainly a concern, in the past people selected targets for a particular reason like wanting to rob them or a dispute with neighbours that got out of hand.

You can't live like that, it's not healthy and it will affect your kids wellbeing. The incident in Southport is sad but it is so so rare. And there are far bigger risks you probably take every day, like driving a car. you need to stop watching the news if it worries you, and honestly I'd consider getting some therapy.

I took my granddaughter to a holiday club this morning.

It's going to be a long day until I can go and pick her up.

I can't stop worrying.

My mum was at school with two people who were murdered in horrendous circumstances. One was a victim of Fred West, the other was decapitated in a quiet street. There have always been terrible tragedies. There always will be.

I don't understand what would possess someone to stab and murder someone. I legitimately don't. I'd understand deep poverty and wanting to mug people. But why would you stab children?