Are Kids of Today Really Bad?
How often do you hear people commenting on how badly behaved children are today compared to those of yesteryear? I know I've said it myself on occasions but having heard my father tell me some of the awful pranks he used to pull, I must say that I don't think today's kids are so bad. Likewise, I know my sister and I have done some things that would have horrified Mum and Dad if they'd known about them at the time.
As far as Dad is concerned, he was born in 1919 in the small village of Aldborough in Norfolk UK. He had four siblings so needless to say discipline was high on the agenda for my granny and grandfather. However, Dad certainly had his moments. Two of his 'pranks' were at the expense of his long suffering headmaster at the local school. On one occasion Dad and his gang waited until the master had shut himself in the privy and then ran round the outhouse with some string so that the poor man couldn't get out. Fortunately his wife came to the rescue but unfortunately for Dad, the master had seen the boys' feet under the door and had stood on the seat of the toilet and watched the gang running away.
Not content with being caught out once, the boys then decided to stick brown paper over the master's bedroom window but again, they were caught out as the headmaster was returning from walking his dog and saw the boys running away from the house.
After being caught out twice Dad decided that pranking wasn't worth the aggro and in fact became a prime student and once he had left school became firm friends with the headmaster and led a successful and crime free life. So if any young mums out there overhear someone commenting on how unruly children of today are don't take it to heart – a certain level of unruliness has been evident in kids since time immemorial.
