The good old days as I remember them were just that, the good old days. Children of the 21st century...

Playing hopscotch hide and seek even a game of rounders was all in a day's fun for a thirteen year old in the good old days. Of course all good things come to an end when called in against your will and ordered up the stairs to wash behind your ears before bed, while the children of the 21st century slap on war paint to disguise their identities for approval into many disco night clubs. .

Succeeding in their mission to gain those added years they would then dance and party till dawn, while I remember back to my navy blue knickers and white vest hanging up to dry in front of an open coal fire for school the next morning.

The nature and attitude of the Children of the 21st century is so different from the days long gone. Children today have a lifestyle not a childhood, whose fault is that I ask. Where do the answers lie?

Remembering back to the words of Mother in the good old days, "There is your dinner"! Now it is "what you would like for dinner"? Another household saying of Mum's was "I can not afford that". Twenty first century mums can by doing an extra shift at work.

And in the in the good old days the threats cast upon us from Mother, threats like, are you looking for a good hiding, No I was not looking for a good hiding, but you never dared to answer back unless of course you were looking for another clout. Nowadays it is the other way round, where a great many Mothers live under threat from their own flesh and blood.

"Where do the answers lie" I ask myself once again.

Drinking was strictly for the adults in the good old days not for teens on the street corner who are not long out of nappies. Drugs in the good old days were prescribed by a Doctor not a dealer, the only dealer we knew of in those days were the ones who dealt the cards in a game of snap.

Will the Children of the 21st Century ever learn? Yes given the right teacher, that being Mummy and Daddy, then as your star pupil begins to grow up he learns to respect his/her elders, that now being Mum or Dad.

Giving into your children's needs and wants is not helping them for the big bad world out there, teach them to stand on their own two feet and if that means going back to the good old days then so be it. Which isn't so bad just to hear the laughter of children growing up in their own time.

I think we all know where the answer lie for why the Children of the 21st century don't laugh any more.