To be genuinely scared of the world we live in

Statistically the world is no more violent now than 10/20/50 years ago in terms of rare crime like that (world war stats are different)

no, I don’t feel genuinely scared of the world. It has its flaws but it’s pretty awesome. Even on a small scale of awesome, such as I’ve organised a kids sports camp this week and watching 40 kids working together, try hard, have fun, that brings such joy. There’s loads of reasons for optimism, you don’t have to spend your time focussed on the rare negative events.

I agree. We know we can put it into perspective of how many activities happen without even but today is still utterly shocking and horrific. It's quite difficult today as mum of a daughter to not draw parallels with the Manchester attacks at an Arianna Grande concert. Plus, the several attacks in the past few years on children by someone mentally ill.

I'm very relaxed as a parent and we are lucky that our kids can have lots of freedoms but today's attack has shocked me to the core. What needs to happen so kids can be safe?

This is a very uncommon occurrence. Don't watch the news and cut down on social media. Being shaken is one thing, but being anxious every time you leave the house will ruin your lives and the lives of your children.

It is horrific, but I agree with the PP this isn't a regular occurrence, at all. Think about how many children's activities happen up and down the country every single day with nothing bad hapenning. You need to put risk into perspective, everything we do (or don't do) carries a smaller or larger risk. It's just for a lot of things we don't think about it. You also have to balance up how much enjoyment activities bring relative to the absolutely minute risk of something bad hapenning.

I also don't know if the frequency of these horrific events are increasing in the UK, today I was thinking about Dunblane and that was 25-30 years ago.

100 years ago you or your child could easily die in childbirth.

Then they had to survive until adult hood without dying of what are today treatable or even preventable illness.

Violent crime was common. And you weren't going to get effective hospital treatment for any injuries.

You wouldn't have known much about what was happening around the world as communications were slow.

It is a much much safer world now than it was.

I feel the same. I don't know how to protect my children from the world anymore. I've always believed in the goodness in people but it's becoming harder to have faith that the majority of people are good people.

It’s shocking and unnerving precisely because it’s not a regular occurrence. As a general trend, humans are becoming less violent but it’s natural and understandable to be deeply shaken when something so awful happens.

100 years ago, we would not have known about these tragedies unless they were huge enough to make national newspapers or happened locally. We know about more bad events now because of the internet.

Maintaining high levels of situational awareness outside your home is IMO a good thing.

I feel exactly the same way OP.

It's absolutely horrible but thankfully not a regular occurrence by any means. The chances of this happening to your nearest and dearest are minute. It's really important to remember that most violence takes place in the home by perpetrators known to the victims. Attacks by strangers are really incredibly rare, which is why they make the news.