I might come over as a fool here....but be gentle...because I really want to get decent input.
I grew up on a council estate in a very poor area...the local steelworks closed when I was about 8 and the majority of Dads were out of work...we were lucky in that my Dad got another job.
I had a wonderful childhood...big family, very close community...traditional type upbringing with chapel, school and corner shop all within a stones throw...you called the neighbours Auntie or Uncle whatever and could trust anyone in the street.
In the Summer the older kids would take the little ones off on excursions on the bus with a picnic...they just did it, they weren't told to...it was all very homely and close.
Now the area is a midden...a cesspit of drugs and teenage Mums with no support for them at all, there are a lot of offenders living there in halfway houses and it has had a big effect as it is a tiny community...
I now live in a nearby city in what I would have called a "posh" area...people don't speak...other parents are wary of one another and the kids aren't allowed out to play at all.
I feel sad and mourn the fact that my children won't experience the things I did...walking to school alone...playing out all day in the Summer...having a great big gang of kids who were sort of extended family...all we have is a nice house and polite neighbours. ..my older DC goes to a private school nearby and has lots of friends but it's all arranged playdates...she is happy...but why then do I keep thinking back on the past? Is it a case of rose tinted an all that?
I miss the seventies and being working class. I Still am working class...I'm just pretending to be something else...and that's why I feel trapped and miserable.