'The Wilderness of Childhood is gone; the days of adventure are past'

[CarmelitaMiggs]

Michael Chabon piece here

water is far cleaner around the British coast than it was in our childhood: thanks to a EU directive the dumping of raw sewage is no longer allowed

and it is easy enough to check water quality online before you set out for your chosen beach; they are tested regularly

but people's perceptions are more about things being bad than they used to be

in the same way as I really cannot see why it would be any more dangerous to play in the local park than it would have been twenty years ago (not much traffic around there); but people's perceptions of danger have changed enormously

whereas dh was allowed to cross London on his own as a 10yo (quite a bit of traffic in London even in the early 70s), ds's friends are not allowed to cross a small not-very-busy road to kick a ball around