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[xinie]

Kids today are just as safe as they were in the '70s, says "Free-Range Kids" author Lenore Skenazy, and what's really distressing is an alarmist culture that refuses to let them grow up.

Or that they grow up too fast. Please, someone make up my mind.

Comments

[mikecap]

Are there figures about the safety of children in urban versus suburban environments?

[gogogrrl]

Awesome. Thank you for posting.

[heidi_and_colin]

I think its both.

We don't let them grow up in a way that teaches self-sufficiency and self-discipline, but they are exposed to images of sexuality and violence earlier. Certain aspects of their maturity are way ahead of when we grew up and some are way behind.

[sauergeek]

After seeing way too many kids being walked to school by their parents (or waiting for the bus with their parents), I called my own parents to ask when I started walking to school by myself. They told me it was in 2nd grade -- I would've been 6 years old. (I suspect the only reason I didn't start in 1st grade is because I was being bused to the far side of town.)

Also, what's the deal with school buses stopping every few blocks to pick up one kid? Why not have a handful of stops no less than a half mile apart instead, and make the kids walk to a mass assembly point? Or, alternately, what's the deal with parents driving their kids to school?

There's so much complaint about child obesity, and yet there's all these people doing their utmost to keep their kids from walking places. I don't understand it, especially when there's no apparent increase in pertinent crime statistics.

[xinie]

Friends who have second graders in my town usually let their kids walk to the bus stop, where, to their consternation, some other overprotective parent drives about three houses with their monster SUV with TVs, and invites all the kids in to watch TV til the bus comes