A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
1–10 of 552 posts
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#2A 4 yr old can also get distracted and walk in front of a car, or climb over a railing and fall of a bridge.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#3A 4 yr old can also get distracted and walk in front of a car, or climb over a railing and fall of a bridge.
I think the point is, if it's generally accepted culture in the community then others will be mindful as well because they know what's going on.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#4"And on the flipside: Wow, American society is really holding kids back."
Naw, not just kids, its everybody.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#5A 4 yr old can also get distracted and walk in front of a car, or climb over a railing and fall of a bridge.
The article describes the child was already engaging in dangerous behaviour (climbing the roof) and pushing boundaries. By giving errands you are (gradually) setting new boundaries for the child you have at least some control over, instead of them suddenly discovering they can go into the neighbourhood or wherever that you don't know about. At least that is what I understand from it. The alternative would be more/stricter boundaries I think. But that would just lead to more undesired and dangerous behaviour from the child to break those boundaries.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#6A large component here is simply risk tolerance.
Society's risk tolerance, especially for kids, has fallen pretty dramatically. This is probably related to just how many fewer kids US society has in general (births per woman has fallen in half since 1960, and it takes a culture some time to catch up). If you have fewer, then the individual ones become that much more valuable. Your attention and time is divided much less.
A hot metal playground slide was no big deal in the 1970s, nor was a merry-go-round, and kids could get injured relatively easily. But our tolerance of such risk has completely disappeared.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#7A 4 yr old can also get distracted and walk in front of a car, or climb over a railing and fall of a bridge.
A large number of adults get distracted by their phones and get run over. The child is probably more aware of its environment than most adults.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#8By all means, let the kid run around town and have fun. I think most of us realize that by the numbers, 'stranger danger' precaution went too far years ago. But errands? They'll have a lifetime of errands when they're older; four years is too young, let them have at least a few years of fun first. Maybe the occasional errand is fun for kids, but I think I know how this ends. Before long it's no longer an adventure and becomes a chore, an obligation. The excitement of buying tomatoes subsides and the kid starts to get scolded for playing before getting his chores done.
Here's my idea: give kids bikes and tell them to be back before dinner.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#9A large component here is simply risk tolerance. Society's risk tolerance, especially for kids, has fallen pretty dramatically. This is probably related to just how many fewer kids US society has in general (births per woman has fallen in half since 1960, and it takes a culture some time to catch up). If you have fewer, then the individual ones become that much more valuable. Your attention and time is divided much l…
I think the "Stranger Danger" panic that accelerated in the 80's is probably more responsible for people thinking that a 4-year old is incapable of running errands. It's not so much the lack of mental capacity as it is decades of cultural inculcation that you should not dare to let any child under the age of ___ wander the streets alone, or they will be immediately abducted, assaulted, and decapitated by dark forces.
America has never really recovered from Adam Walsh's murder, IMO.
Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV
#10https://text.npr.org/1093153651 Link that actually loads in the EU. Also, as a german citizen: isn't that public knowledge? When seven years old I walked to my school and visited neighbors afterwards without telling anyone where I was going, as long as that I was not delayed too much.
(When 27 years old and moving back in with my parents, that actually changed, but after a few years I trained them to let me live my own life again.)