Going back to the original post: Remember when anybody in the neighborhood who saw a kid doing something wrong [[smoking, fighting, throwing rocks at passing cars, etc.) could either chastise the kid or call his parents [[because everybody knew everybody in the neighborhood back then) without the parents going crazy and wanting to fight the 'nosey' neighbor for not minding his own business? I knew better than to mess up anywhere in a three block radius of my house because my folks would find out.

Seems like nowadays, if you try to stop a kid from running at [[literally) breakneck speed in a grocery store, his mom will swear at you like she's a drunken sailor. You're probably lucky if she doesn't call store security and threaten to sue you if you touched the brat.