A New York columnist lets her grade-schooler ride the subway alone, provoking a wave of criticism. But do kids really need more supervision than in generations past? Half the people I've told this episode to now want to turn me in for child abuse. As if keeping kids under lock and key and helmet and cell phone and nanny and surveillance is the right way to rear kids. It's not. It's debilitating—for us and for them." Free Range Kids—promoting the idea that modern children need some of the same independence that her generation had. In the good old days nine-year-old baby boomers rode their bikes to school, walked to the store, took buses—and even subways—all by themselves. So why are some parents so nervous about letting their children out of their sight? Are cities and towns less safe and kids more vulnerable to crimes like child abduction and sexual abuse than they were in previous generations? Nationwide, stranger abductions are extremely rare; there's a one-in-a-million chance a child will be taken by a stranger. between 1980 and 2003 death rates dropped by 44 percent for children ages five to 14 and 32 percent for teens aged 15 to 19. Back in 1972, when many of today's parents were kids, 87 percent of children who lived within a mile of school walked or biked every day. But today, the Centers for Disease Control report that only 13 percent of children bike, walk or otherwise get themselves to school. (That lack of physical activity has prompted the CDC to create outreach programs designed to get kids walking to school again, in an effort to combat the childhood obesity epidemic.) Full Article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/133103/page/1 I personally know a lot of parents that are way overprotective. We live not even 5 minutes from the school and can almost see it from our house. Parents will still walk their kids to school and pick them up. I am talking about kids that are in grade 1 and up. There is no busy road to cross just 1 regular street. There are also tons of kids walking to and from at the same time. My kids have been walking to school themselves since grade 1. Like the article said we used to walk to school when were kids about 4-5 blocks and our parents never walked us. We also used to go to the neighbourhood park without our parents. I would go and play with my friends, go bike riding or whatever as long as I was home when the streetlights came on. I was never under strict watch. I think I have been brainwashed also into thinking that it is a more dangerous time now, but really is it? Or is it like the article said that the media just magnifies every incident, where they didn't so much back then. What are your thoughts? Do you think it is more dangerous for kids now then it was back when we were kids? Do you supervise your kids at all times when they are outside, walk them to school or sit at the park while they are playing?
the world always seems to go to chaos, always future shows something more disgusting or repulsive...but in the end its just the same thing every generation.
I think the nation is just being perceived to be a lot more dangerous in the past. These days the news and internet will blast and repeat headlines (Who'd have figured that one?), and that makes a single kidnapping or similar crime seem that much more prevalent. And always seems that generations have been getting more and more lazy since the 50's. Every generation seems to have it easier than the next, and each generation seems to have more methods of "protection" or supervision than the last.
I thought it was normal to have parents walk their kid to school in grade 1. I started walking alone in grade 3.
Shorty, my future wife, you should know. You're the most coddled of all. now you also deserve some fondling and caressing. How about it?
As an ex Boy Seaman Royal Navy age 15.. You are bring up your childen as poofters.. Kick their arses and tell them it is life... Get on with it ..
You're already married, aren't you? I seem to recall you telling us a little while back of looming nuptials. Or was that just another strand in your finely-spun web of (self-)deceit?
Let me say this about that. I really think that if you take your kids to school it isn't coddling them at all. I think that if a parent has the time and opportunity to help their kids then they should , up to a point. By just driving them anywhere, to me, isn't showing coddling but love and consideration for your own offspring. When you stop the car, get out with them and walk them into their classrooms, then that would be a problem then. I don't think it is that much more dangerous outside today then it was when I grew up except that there are about 5 times as many people around me then ever before which would increase the chances of problems that much as well. Kids just have to learn how to deal with more crap happening around them and that teaching should come through the parents. If anything , I would think that parents DON"T help their kids as much and that is why there are more problems to deal with. If every parent would teach their own kids respect and understanding of others it would be a better place in which to live for everyone.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
ex boy seaman? poofter? arse? I speak a few different forms of english but that just ain't! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Married, had a kid, divorced..or in the process of. Marriage, not for me. I would have to chop off my balls and become like Inverted_nexus or Romani, a.k.a. Mephura or something. I went through the entire gamut of the post-modern experience with mediocrity in the span of two years. I thought I'd get it out of the way so that I can then live my life the way I want to.
The world is, in someways, much safer than it was when we were kids. Fatal car crashes are not nearly as common. Cars today have airbags and child seats....I never rode in a car seat, you either rode in your mom's arms, or you sat in the backseat without a seatbelt. But, in someways, kids today are exposed to material we never saw. When I was 8, I didn't even know about drugs. Once at the pool, I saw a girl sharing her cigarette with 2 of her friends. I later told my grandmother how nice it was for that girl to share her cigarette..and grandma agreed, because she didn't know what a joint was either. At 8, I wasn't 100% sure what kind of "parts" girls had. Kids are exposed to more today, and sometimes have to make choices they're not old enough to make. I think some parents just want to wrap their kids in bubble-wrap...so they never have to experience negative things....soccer games where the don't keep score..what the hell? I think that's going a little overboard.
This thread reminds me of this song, have a listen... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjdVOfnYkyA&feature=related
Largest spider web ever created? 60 acres. Link. Not sure what the record is for a single arachnid though.
My kids are rarely sick. I think its because I let them play and didn't follow them around saying "don't touch that" "Put that down" and wiping down every surface with hand sanitizer. I've even seen them wipe down shopping carts! How is a kid supposed to build up immunities? I went to a garage sale today at a house with an approx 80 ft driveway. 20 ft from the house was a spray painted yellow line on the driveway. I asked why and she said the kids couldn't ride their bikes past it. I said "Oh! Cuz of the traffic" she said "No, someone might take them if they get too close to the road" those poor kids. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
They say China's one child policy is creating similar changes there. Maybe it's partly due to families having so few children - the kids I remember being coddled and worried over were often only children, or one of two, in my youth. But I do feel sorry for kids who can't do the things that are now my fondest memories of childhood. We used to roam.
I blame the press, creating an environment of fear amongst parents. Life isn't more dangerous than it used to be, people are still people, and kids are still kids. But when people do bad things to kids, the press make a big deal out of it, and we think it's more prevalent than it actually is. It's all BS anyway, 90% of the abuse children suffer is not at the hands of strangers, but by parents, and relations. Just take the recent case in Austria.
That's true, but consider to what extent the kid is with actual strangers compared to the people they encounter every day. I think a little worry about strangers is statistically quite legitimate.
10% of the worry is legitimate, but considering the number of strangers a kid meets vs the number of relatives a kid has, that makes relatives far, far more dangerous!
In terms of total exposure, yeah. But think about the flip side: the risk associated with a single, given stranger is probably higher. Maybe that explains the nervous response of parents etc. I wonder if someone's taken this into account in a study somewhere.
Better safe than sorry I guess. A couple years ago we used to have this ranch. My sisters and I loved ponys and animals, so my father got it and we each had a hoarse and all that. On the weekends we would go rideing with dad and it was kinda fun. When I turned like 12 I started wanting to ride around on my own, but my father is very protective. He never let us go off the property. Then dad started making us feed the horses. We had to feed them before school, and after school. It wasn't very fun. The food weighed alot, and the hay made me itchy. Eventually we stopped riding the horses, because we could never go off the property. Since it wasn't very fun taking care of them, dad sold them and the ranch which we were completely happy with. I still don't get to go trick-or-treating alone. It is no fun being followed around by dads car. Everynight, went I was younger, we would come home, and we would have to go straight to the kitchen table and get our homework done. Then he would check it all over, and only after all that, could we go play. Luckily he doesn't do that anymore. He still comes to most of my ballet practices. He is very into how well i do, and he is always on me about my size and what I eat. "ASTIN, you know bread is fattening. Astin you can't eat pickles because the pickle juice is fattening. Astin milk is fattening. Astin the dressing on salad is fattening." Also I never get to play with my friends because if I get hurt I can't do ballet. And he gets mad if I get colds because it affects ballet performance. He doesn't let me ride in cars with anyone besides family either. I know this boy from summer camp. Hes 16 with a car. One time he gave me a ride home. I got grounded from 2 weeks. He doesn't let more then 2 peeps on the trampoline, and we can only swim when hes home. I can't cal boys on the phone, and boys arn't allowed over. yet i have a brother who swears, drinks with his friends, drives a car, drives a race car, plays dangerous sports like wrestling, eats mc donalds, and gets in fights, and stays out late, and skips school, and hurts us, and has girls over, and never cleans his room, and back talks, and spends like a thousand a month on his credit card. Dad never grounds him, and on the rare occasion that he does, my brother ignores it, and dad doesn't do anything. Hes only 3 years older too. Tells you the difference between boys and girls huh.
