This is what I mean when I say that I don’t think this current period is that awful for kids.
Perhaps what’s wrong is that they just don’t know ( because it hasn’t been explained to them ) that we live in privileged times. It really wasn’t that long ago that child labour was normal, as it still is in many countries, and that children would die at work. Life expectancy a hundred years ago in Liverpool was about 30, so grim was it.

Maybe you’ve got to be a bit older to even appreciate the point I’m making? My own Dad’s brother died in childhood. Abersychan ( as above ) was where he was born, and where all my family lived, grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, everyone. Back then it wasn’t uncommon to lose a child to one of the many illnesses that could strike quickly.
Overall maybe this will prove to have been the Golden Era for mankind… these last 70 years .. if you think what’s ahead, with the loss of most of the natural world, huge climate change/ pollution/ civil wars and unrest through population migrations, then I really believe that mankind’s future is bleak, and we are fortunate to have had the lives we have had.

PS My Dad sent me this about him and his Grandfather ( who he called Maccy )

‘When I was a boy Maccy and I walked the woods and mountains every Sunday morning. One of our regular walks was to the old Llanerch pit head which had been filled in after the explosion. As a result I heard the story of the disaster many times along with the devastating effect it had on the Eastern Valley communities. Love, Dad’

And from Jeff Thomas that I was in school with.
‘Up around there Russ…my old man took us around some of the old colliery sites and then over to Six Bells Colliery to see The Guardian..s statue of a miner over looking the valley…Llanerch very humbling as you can see the fenced in and filled shafts..worth a visit Russ.
If your heading over that way Russ….also visit Aberfan…Garden of Remembrance and the cemetery…I’ve been there a few times…each time I read up on Aberfan and there are a few really good documentaries…( On 21 October 1966 a colliery spoil tip collapsed into homes and a school, killing 116 children and 28 adults.) I actually watched one the other night on the survivors and the PTSD and survivors guilt that they carry even to this day over 50 years past…also if you get a chance have a look at the photography of Chuck Rapoport…he was the photographer that captured that famous photo of one the school clocks which stopped at 9.13am..the time the disaster hit the school…some of his photos tug at the heart..Aberfan is still considered one of the Queens darkest days as she didn’t visit I think for a number of days after the disaster…one of the reasons why Aberfan is continually supported by The Royal Family…it’s amazing when I visited the garden of remembrance that there isn’t one piece of graffiti….as my father says…they wouldn’t dare…very humbling indeed