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The Safety of Kids
Apr. 16th, 2015 09:33 pmI read on Yahoo! News today that the "Free Range" kids were picked up by the police today while they were walking back home from the park. The police and child protective services held the kids for a long while before letting them go home with their parents. The whole story is here.
If I recall correctly, the parents are being criticized for letting their two kids, ages 10 and 6, walk together the mile from their home to the local park and back on their own. The story makes it sounds like there are outraged people going on about child safety, but most of the comments I've read on the Yahoo! site have parents basically not seeing a big deal about it.
I have to agree. As a kid, I was allowed to walk or ride my bike solo much farther than that and no one blinked. Some argue that we live in more dangerous times, but I can't say I totally agree there either. I think with our access to more constant national media, we just hear more about such stories.
Reading the story today was a bit ironic for me. On my drive home today I got stuck behind the school bus in my subdivision. I swear, the bus literally dropped off kids every 100 feet. Instead of dropping the group off at the corner and letting them walk less than a block to their respective homes, the bus practically drops them off at home individually, which seems very time intensive with the breaks and stops.
Not being a parent, I guess I just don't see the harm. I would like to think I would have taught my kid(s) how to look both ways before crossing the street and trusted they could walk less than block to get home.
If I recall correctly, the parents are being criticized for letting their two kids, ages 10 and 6, walk together the mile from their home to the local park and back on their own. The story makes it sounds like there are outraged people going on about child safety, but most of the comments I've read on the Yahoo! site have parents basically not seeing a big deal about it.
I have to agree. As a kid, I was allowed to walk or ride my bike solo much farther than that and no one blinked. Some argue that we live in more dangerous times, but I can't say I totally agree there either. I think with our access to more constant national media, we just hear more about such stories.
Reading the story today was a bit ironic for me. On my drive home today I got stuck behind the school bus in my subdivision. I swear, the bus literally dropped off kids every 100 feet. Instead of dropping the group off at the corner and letting them walk less than a block to their respective homes, the bus practically drops them off at home individually, which seems very time intensive with the breaks and stops.
Not being a parent, I guess I just don't see the harm. I would like to think I would have taught my kid(s) how to look both ways before crossing the street and trusted they could walk less than block to get home.
