To ask people with grown up children...

[ThatsNotMyCherry]

If you felt worried about what kind of world you were bringing children in to when you had them? Is this something that every generation feels?

Well I sat and watched the twin towers collapse live on TV with my toddler when I was weeks away from giving birth to my second child. People marched the streets in protest at the Iraq war when I was pregnant with third. 7/7 terrorist attacks happened when pregnant with 4th. Luckily for the world, I stopped having babies.

Seriously, I remember being enthralled by my Nan's tales of bombs dropping all around them as they laid in bed at night in London during WW2. They didn't have children so didn't bother using air raid shelters. One day Nan realised if she lost my Grandad she'd have nothing so my Mum was born. in the 80s I grew up thinking the whole world would be wiped out by a nuclear bomb.

The world keeps turning, bad things happen but good things happen too.

In my garden, the buds are growing and spring is coming, it's beautiful. Nature carries on despite what we are doing. Just love your children, keep going, stay positive.

I get the feeling that my baby might be born into a whole new world...
Then again, nothing may change!

Sorry, don't have much to add to this but just wanted to say dayswithaY post is lovely. Really good to hear after days of "Covid will be the end of us all and I'm the only person in the country not being a selfish twat" on MN.

This is our chance to change the world....to start again responsibly

Wonder if there will be good come from this

I never really felt that because life goes on. just because its gloomy now, doesnt mean they arent going to have full and happy lives.

Mine are all grown up. My eldest was born in 87. It never occurred to me to be honest. I had a fun life and probably didn't think too much about doom and gloom. I lived abroad when Chernobyl happened and though now I think how horrific it was at the time it was just something on the news. I was just totally immersed in my own life in a sunny country and didn't worry about anything. Once I became a mother I worried about everything that was going on in the world and still do. My second dc was born during the gulf War. I remember bf at night watching the news thinking omg what is going to happen next.
However for me right now is the most terrified I have been.

When my youngest was a few months old, early morning feeding, listening to the radio and John Humphries announces that 'The Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher has sent a task force to the Falkland Islands'
Once I'd checked in the atlas that these islands were in the South Atlantic Ocean and not in Scotland which was my first thought ,
Called DH who was dressing DD for school and told him that we were all going to Hell in a hand basket.
He sensibly reminded me that this is what our parents had said about the Suez crisis when we were kids in the 1950's.
And now this, as my children's children are about to experience something more insidious than war but as devastating.
We'll all come out the other side eventually.
I'm no philosopher, just an old biddy self isolating with my 'vulnerable' DH but with plenty of tech/access to our family.
Goodness me, that was a bit of a ramble.Too much time on our hands

I know how you feel my DS1 was a newborn when the twin towers went down, he was toddler when the tsunami struck. Every generation has life changing events. Just love & protect your children & follow advice to keep safe. Being a mum is an amazing journey but a worrying one too, you just never stop DS1 is nearly 19 now I worry every time he goes out in the car.

This will be good for their resilience in adult life--if those around children behave calmly, yet firmly, when required. It will teach them how to think of more vulnerable people and show them what matters. If you talk to people who were children during WW2 in England, quite a few of them have happy memories of that time: almost nostalgia.

No, I never worried in that way. Mine were born in 97 and 2001, so 9/11 7/7, Lee Rigby and many more atrocities have happened in their lifetime. We also live in London. I've never worried about things I cannot control, and I've tried to teach them to be the same, and to just be decent individuals. Fingers crossed, but I think it's worked so far.

Not with dd who is 23 od ds 20, but I was 7 months pregnant with ds 14 when 7/7 happened and just sat bawling at home thinking what kind of world he would be arriving to.
Dd has a dd herself now, 7mo, I worry for her

This is the biggest crisis in my life time but, I remember the Falkland war, I was 6 or 7 and obviously both gulf wars ,but tbh they were too far away to be directly affected they was also the ever present fear of nuclear war during the 80,s and than the HIV/AIDS don't die of ignorance campaign but none of these affected me directly And schools were not closed and life went on generally as norma this definitely feels like something on a,much bigger scale l , But my Grandparents lived through two world wars.

Thanks, it helps with perspective I guess to know that we aren’t the first to feel this way. I feel this way mostly when I think about climate change, but do also worry about the state of the economy and whether my kids will be able to have a similar standard of living to what I had growing up etc

@dayswithaY you are so right!! thank you for what you have written there. I really needed reminding of this today. Honestly it puts things into perspective for me. Thank you xx

I grew up through the IRA bombings, remember the Falklands and Chenobyl, then my 2 were both preschoolers when the twin towers came down, however whilst the ensuing terror was real it was removed and did not completely change how I lived on a day-to-day basis.

I know now I have 2 adults who should be enjoying university, having fun with friends and then finding a career, instead we have no idea of what to expect next and can do nothing to change this.