Some things change. Some are normalised.

I've noticed lately that some things do, indeed, change.

I'm quite shocked when a see that a person's skin is sunburned. As a child it was a regular part of life.

I'm surprised now when I see someone smoking. My children are quite shocked. They hardly ever see smokers. I mostly hang out with other parents, and they don't smoke.

For me to do something naughty these days means I put something in the garbage when it could be composted or recycled. Or I eat food from McDonalds when the kids aren't around. Or pop a piece of Fair Trade Organic Dark Chocolate into my mouth. The other night I drank TWO glasses of champagne. TWO!. That takes the alcohol consumption for the year up to maybe seven units, including the glass at our last P&C. That's way more than previous years. Wild times indeed!

And this is from a person whose average weekend at the age of twenty involved alcohol, smoking, sunbaking and lots of other activities I wouldn't want my children engaging in. We had no boundaries. It just wasn't cool amongst my peergroup to rein each other in. It wasn't cool to care. Most of us came through it OK. Some didn't. I'm very glad no-one was taking photos to post on the internet.

The other thing I've noticed is that the mood altering substances are now mainstream. Why bother paying for illegal drugs when you could go on antidepressants and drink Red Bull? So much easier. Accessible. Cheaper. No need to hang out with criminals. But that means you need to move a little farther away from normal to engage in the taboo and be a real rebel.