[Margaret Pilkington]

John, that maybe becuse we are from the same era.
And yes, there were some poor parents about when we were growing up, but the difference was, there was discipline at school......and there were people to look up to at school. There were also organisations which fostered good citizenship...... cubs, scouts, Church Brigade......and remember more of us were affiliated to churches and organisations then.
Our minds were not contaminated(though I am not sure that that is quite the right word to use) by insidious TV junk and poor influences from the media.
Life was so different......I think maybe our expectations were lower too. We did not expect to 'have everything'....'do everything'.
We were influenced by the fact that most of our parents worked damned hard to give us a better life than they had......and remember the war was fresh in their minds.

I don't think we were as materialistic either. we were grateful for whatever we were given.
My perception of the children of today(and I may be wide of the mark, seeing as my own daughter is in her 40's - Sorry Nicola)is that they want everything yesterday....and they want designer stuff.......everything has to be bigger(or in some cases) such as technology, smaller, more 'now' and they compete with friends who seem to have everything....they are more influenced by advertisements and consumerism.
Parenting is getting harder and harder.......with more pressures being placed on parents and folk giving parents bad press. Very unhelpful.