The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs.
or the clap> Not AIDS though Willie.

Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.
Right. Not in my 70's! So what drugs did you do when you were a kid Willie, LSD?

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him
to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

that was sure swell...but I was the kid and I thought a thing or two of it, so did my friends.
Thats the way it was in England Willie, you Americans have never experienced this way of life. Obviously.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to
hide behind.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard
of.

where the hell did you grow up anyway? somewhere where adults hit kids and didn't do anything to help them if they were having problems? How delightful that must have been. I get all warm and fuzzy... England and English morals Willie, a cuff on the ear from the local Bobby was enough to sort out a misbehaving youngster, nowadays it's community orders.

freedom, failure, success and responsibility," and coping skills,

England Willie, footie in the street, kerb ball, paper chase. |That was freedom. Failure, you didn't get another go because you failed, you failed. Period. Oh dear another Yank expression that has crept in to our language.

You obviously grew up in an American 'hood' that consisted of a basketball court and drug dealing youths, in gangs, beating the hell out of one another. Much the same as England today. I wonder where we got that from. Thanks America for nothing.