I can’t help but wonder if we are being selfish or not. We are bringing a child into this world and what a terrible world it has become. Oh, I know, our parents probably thought the same – or it probably was just as bad back then – but I remember growing up in a world that was safer and freer and healthier. Or am I just being way too paranoid?

My mother and my grandmother knew that I was a busy and adventurous boy. They also understood that boys need to run and jump and bicycle and explore and do what boys do (after all, my one uncle was called Tarzan for very good reasons). I had relatively few limitations. Obviously the ethical and legal ones, but more importantly I was told to be home by sunset. In Africa we worked (and I guess my system still does) that work, or play for that matter, started when the sun came up and ended when the sun went down. This then also determined when we ate (ha ha ha – I get really hungry during the summertime in Finland when sunset is so far away).

Anyway, I’d be out and about in the bushes and on the streets and I often got home after sunset. My mother and gran worried of course and I was reprimanded constantly. This is something we in today’s age just cannot allow our children to do any more – it just is not safe to do that now.

As a kid my biggest worries were snakes, honey badgers and thorns. Now we have thieves, rapists, psychos, sickos, weirdoes and a list of other threats. As a kid the nights were probably the more dangerous times. Today you are likely to be attacked at any moment.

But I guess that all will work out in the end anyway. Doesn’t it always? I am just getting older. I am most likely going on just like parents did when I was born. I hope I am just overreacting.

I am very happy that we are having our child in Finland though. The social system here seems to be better thought out and more operative too. The people certainly are more accommodating and supportive. I am confident our child will have a very good start in life here and I sincerely hope that as a species we very soon learn to live in peace and harmony.