This series contains adult language and depictions of graphic violence.

Listener discretion is advised.

Okay, this is a tough episode, but it happened and it's an important piece of the

puzzle when trying to understand just how forcefully the effects of the

satanic panic swept across America and the world. For all the parents out

there sending their kids off to school this week, think back to that first day of preschool, that first day of expensive, scary preschool.

And I mean scarier for the parents than for the kids.

I remember hiding behind a hedge with my wife trying to see how our kid would react to being

without us for the first time.

And we weren't alone there.

There were three other parent couples behind that edge,

just making sure that, you know,

the kid was okay.

I mean, we were fine. We were just concerned for our children.

And you know what? They were okay. It wasn't perfect, but really what is?

It was the first letting go in what is a series of successive and increasingly more serious letting

goes in the lives of our kids.

Elementary school drop-offs, athletic activities, sleepovers,

summer camps, first dates, college. It makes me want to sit in a corner and cry. But hey, that's parenting. And the

consistent element to nearly all of the events I just mentioned is that there is an adult that isn't you who is

temporarily in charge of the safety of your children and that's where the fear comes in.

Welcome back. And that's where the fear comes in.

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