I see kids in stores and movie theaters and restaurants running around and using foul language and hitting other children in ways which would have been unheard of when I was a kid.
It was truly shocking to hear a child use the F word or anything similar to that when I was a kid (and I’m not that old), because my own parents and the parents of my friends and our teachers would never have allowed it and who ever uttered the offending word would have been swiftly punished.
Also, it was uncommon back when I was a kid to see children running loose from their parents. Back then, you were expected to either hold your parent’s hand or sit in the grocery cart or otherwise stay nearby. But now I see toddlers completely left un-attended in stores and public restrooms. Plus you weren’t allowed to touch things in a store or grab things off the shelves or eat things right out of the bin, or even eat anything in a grocery store until it had been paid for. If you started whining or screaming, you were promptly taken out of the store and given a good talking to. It would have been completely embarrassing to kids my age to have been seen having a tantrum. Only little tiny babies cried and fussed in stores. Now kids from 2 to 17 pitch fits all over the place and the parents just let them. And back in the day, if you saw something wrong, you could simply give the parents a good long stare and that would usually get them to step up to the plate. Now it’s likely to get you screamed at or physically attacked.
Plus, back then, if you acted up in another family’s home, you could expect that you would be talked to, spanked or taken home immediately and that other mother or father would tell your parents exactly what you did. We learned what to do and not to do, not only from our own parents, but from our friend’s parents and other adult relatives as well. Today, nobody seems to be teaching children right from wrong, manners, how to dress modestly or age appropriately or how to behave politely.