How safe are kids these days?
My husband and I were talking about it this morning. The kids on our street are not even allowed to walk to the bus stop on their own. The parents in our neighborhood pile the kids into the car and drive them the one block and then sit there with the car idling, until the bus arrives. It’s kind of sad when I think back to how much fun we had simply exploring. On the weekend, we would pack a lunch and then go exploring for the day. My mother thought nothing of it.
It’s a sad world that we live in today! How much freedom did you have as a kid?
In our neighborhood it is perfectly safe for the children to walk to the bus stop, but the parents still put them in the car and drive them the half block. My goodness we wouldn’t want them to have to leave a couple of minutes earlier, or get any excercise or god forbid stand in the cold waiting for the bus to arrive. This applies to the parents who actually let their children ride the school bus.
Sorry, I’m a little cynical about the whole riding the bus thing.
I grew up in the country and it never would have occured to me that I might be unsafe spending the entire day in the woods building a fort or castle. My mother would often scream from the back porch for me to come home to eat and I would rather play than eat. Can say that happens often enought these days.
Most people that have their children kidnapped and killed thought their neighborhood was “perfectly safe” too. I do this….with my 6 yr old son. I refuse to let him stand at the bus stop by himself, even with other kids around. I wished it were different, but it’s just not.
My kids arent quite tweens yet.. few years left … but I allow them to go and play outside unsupervised as i live in a gated community. There is security around on patrol and I feel that kids that are not allowed any “exploration” time shall we say are not getting the full experience of childhood and developing a sense of self accomplishment from taking risks and checking out new things on their own terms. Kids like parents needs some alone down time to do as they wish ( within reason of course) to expand their own interests.