I remember growing up in an era where post WW2 military sirens went off early in the morning while I was walking to school. When we arrived at school, we had drills to evacuate the buildings in case of an earthquake, or we would hide under our desks. If our clothing caught fire we learned as first graders to "drop and roll." In today's world adults and children alike have a new drill they must learn: Run...Hide...Fight! Watch this video about how to prepare for violence in your workplace.
The world is becoming increasingly more violent. It happens in our homes, in our schools, in shopping centers, and at our workplace. Where does it end? I think a better question is where does it begin? If we stop for a minute and look at what we are exposing our children to it all makes perfect sense. Consider what a normal 10 year old is exposed to every day:
He wakes up to an alarm clock and his mother yelling at him to get up and get ready for school. His father abandoned him before he was born and his mother works two jobs, is on food stamps, and struggles every day to provide enough money to stay in their one bedroom apartment. She loves him, but is too tired to show him. Today, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 19 million children live in single-mother families, up from 17 million in 2000. http://lib.post.ca.gov/Publications.
He goes to school where they are bullied by his peers. Threats of physical assault and rape on campus are commonplace, teachers are overwhelmed and under supported, Vaping is everywhere and is causing anxiety and depression, and he is forced to continue through the day isolated and afraid. Add to this already insane negative "learning" environment the fact that at any minute someone with a gun could walk into his classroom and shoot him. So far in 2019 there have been 22 school shootings in the US in which someone was hurt or killed.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/08/us/school-shootings-us-2019-trnd/index.html
When he gets home to an empty house, he turns on the internet and watches porn while smoking marijuana and drinking the beer that helps his mom "relax" after a long day at work. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends screening for substance use in children, starting at 9 years of age. https://www.cdc.gov/features/teen-substance-use/index.html
On the weekends, his mother's boyfriend comes over, they get high, and eventually the evening ends in a fight and his is mother left crying, wounded, and she passes out on the floor. Every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten. https://domesticviolencestatistics.org/domestic-violence-statistics/
He goes to bed, cries tears no one sees, is terrified for himself and his mother, and wishes for a better life knowing tomorrow it will all repeat again.
If you think this is extreme, I once thought that was the case. But in my practice we are begged by parents and schools to help more and more children with suicidal thoughts, fighting, and making threats of violence against their parents and others. What is the solution? I don't know. The slippery slope has let us slip so far down into darkness that I don't know if we can recover. But, what I counsel parents to do is to remove their children from everything that is contributing to the insanity of today's world. Turn off the Televisions, the internet, and clear your home of alcohol and drugs, even "legal" drugs. If you can, homeschool your children. Make your home the one place where safety, sanity, and calm resides. Take them camping, take them to church, take an interest in their lives. Love your children in ways that show them you care.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:13