When I grew up at the end of seventies in Finland it was commonplace at my apartment building that if a child had a problem any adult from the building would help.
If there was a fight, the closest adult would separate the kids.
If there was blood, the closest adult would fix it.
If there was a problem, anyone could step in and try to find a solution to it.
The children could approach any adult without fear and ask anything they would want to know.
The apartment building had ten to fifteen families with kids of roughly the same age, we played together, we fought with kids of other apartment buildings (teenagers stepped in when hockey sticks and other paraphernalia came involved.)
We explored the forests nearby without any fear, we build rafts so that we could explore the more swampy areas, we built forts in the forests, we had epic snow wars, we spent days and days on our sleighs going down any incline.
It was a different time.
Finland was being run by a benign tyrant that had maneuvered the country so that Soviets would not care what happened here, basically we were adopting what he thought was good in their society and implemented in ours. It meant everybody had free healthcare, education and cheap public transport.
Just two generations earlier the people had fought WWII, winter war and the war after that. The urbanization had really kicked off only after the wars so the people from the agricultural areas were still working with the same communal attitude that had been around for centuries. There was communal saunas where people were equal from all walks of life. People that were 'no good' tended to disappear.
There were no paedos, there were no criminals, there was nothing bad that reached the basic worker of Finland at time, you had to love the propaganda machine back then. Also the community thing meant that things were dealt on personal level, if there was a problem with your neighbour you sorted it out with him. It may have lead to violence, but thats how things happened. Same thing worked with petty criminals and anyone that would threaten the safety of the community. The authorities did not need to get involved with everything.
It made everyone safe.
So it was perfectly fine if a stranger picked up your kid after he had fallen down and wiped the tears off his face and told him to run off and play.
Since then things have changed.
Media is all about mistrust towards your fellow man.
Fear this and fear that.
Do not act yourself, call in the authorities.
Sue everybody, you might get something out of it.
If I would go to a kid in a sandbox that was hitting another one in the head with a shovel and took the shovel from his/her hand and told him/her to stop in a stern voice.
First, I would get the mother on my back, shouting obscenities and threatening to call a cop.
If I would do something similar later to the same kid.
I would get the father on my back, probably with threat of violence involved.
At this point the authorities would get involved and I would probably be labeled as a sex offender because of the 'white lies' that the parents had told to the authorities to keep their children safe.
If I would want to I could go through a legal process that would take years to get that label removed but it would still be on my permanent record and it would affect my ability to get a job and exclude me from ever trying to get a political career.
The society has changed and its fucked up.
When it comes to the sound that the children make, there is a certain pitch that they only hit when something is really wrong. Most of the noise is just the children trying to make the parent react or bend the boundaries that the parent has put up. For some children it is a constant battle about authority with their parents.
Back in the day you could put the fear of God in them.
Nowadays its illegal to physically educate your child.