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A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

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Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#171

Post by kazinator »

sloreti wrote: post #27

Disappointing that an article like this wouldn’t mention one of the main reasons children are given less autonomy in the US: our built environment. The vast majority of our children grow up in neighborhoods in which one can’t easily be a pedestrian at any age. Low density communities, in which almost all trips have to be taken in cars, are of course not friendly to non-drivers. Japan builds dense, mixed use neighborh…

Low density is not the reason you have to walk a long way to get to a house that it would take you seconds to get to if you climbed a backyard fence. It's just the stupid tree-of-cul-de-sacs layout.

Most of Japan isn't dense; it's single-family, detached dwellings. Those neighborhoods are walkable in spite of that. In metropolitan areas like around Tokyo, sure the houses are on small plots and close together; but houses are houses. It's still pretty low density.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#172

Post by gompertz »

kube-system wrote: post #166
ARandomerDude wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now the majority of people are driving vehicles that are much larger than a 1982-model work pickup, and with 5-10x the engine power. The 1982 F-150 had around 200 horsepower, depending on the configuration. If you believe the majority of people are driving between 1,000 to 2,000 hp cars today you are badly mistaken. An Abrams tank has around 1,500 hp but not too many of my neighbors drive those to work. https://its…

The '82 F150 only had that much power if you got a loaded truck with a V8. The base V6 engine was 130hp. You could also get pickups with 52 horsepower in 1982 as well: http://vwtruckforsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/specs-s... A 2021 Ram TRX has 13.5 times that amount of power. (702hp) The smallest pickups you can get in the US today, the Maverick and the Santa Cruz both start at 3.7 times that amount of power (…

And the new electric Hummer (now branded as GMC) is ~20x!=]

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#174

Post by wahern »

robonerd wrote: post #46
sloreti wrote: post #27

Disappointing that an article like this wouldn’t mention one of the main reasons children are given less autonomy in the US: our built environment. The vast majority of our children grow up in neighborhoods in which one can’t easily be a pedestrian at any age. Low density communities, in which almost all trips have to be taken in cars, are of course not friendly to non-drivers. Japan builds dense, mixed use neighborh…

I don't think this is the main reason. It fails to explain why neighborhoods that kids played freely in decades ago now keep their kids inside. I'm talking about suburban neighborhoods in modest towns that haven't seen population growth or urban development. I used to walk to school frequently, every time I missed the bus it was a two mile walk down country roads. If the weather was nice, sometimes I'd choose to walk…

> The only thing that changed was people became more fearful.

People absolutely drive considerably faster. There are many reasons for that, but they do. When I was a kid roaming around on my own in the 1980s and 1990s, the roads simply weren't as dangerous as they are now.

People not only drive faster, but driver visibility is much worse--because A frames, because SUVs, etc.

I agree fear has grown considerably. But not all that extra fear is irrational--at least some of it is justified.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#175

Post by goodpoint »

tempnow987 wrote: post #67

Not in the US they can't. "officials placed two brothers into foster care after one, 11, was found playing basketball alone in his own yard." He'd gotten home early from school and his parents came 90 minutes later. He was in his own yard. The family lost their children to foster care. Ironically in foster care ACTUAL abuse rates are pretty darn high! "When Cindy and Fred arrived home they were arrested for child neg…

> Mom worked in the school district ironically.

Where's the irony?

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#176

Post by ozfive »

sloreti wrote: post #27

Disappointing that an article like this wouldn’t mention one of the main reasons children are given less autonomy in the US: our built environment. The vast majority of our children grow up in neighborhoods in which one can’t easily be a pedestrian at any age. Low density communities, in which almost all trips have to be taken in cars, are of course not friendly to non-drivers. Japan builds dense, mixed use neighborh…

I think another part of it is that people don't know their neighbors as well as they used to. Here in Seattle there is a problem called the Seattle freeze and when you encounter other people who won't even say hello back to you in passing let alone can have a conversation with you become weary of who they are in private and how they could be a threat to your children.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#178

Post by rsync »

robonerd wrote: post #164
rsync wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"She would be required to report any kid who was walking to school, it simply isn't allowed anymore." With apologies, I don't believe this is true. Where does this requirement come from and to whom would she deliver these reports ?

School teachers are 'mandatory reporters', they are required by law to report any evidence of abuse or neglect. Teachers in her district were all told that a child walking to school by themself was evidence of neglect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_reporting_in_the_Uni...

Thanks - appreciated.

However, if I understand correctly, the law is the mandatory reporting of abuse or neglect ... but the directive she received, that " ... a child walking to school by themself was evidence of neglect ..." is not a law.

What school district is this, by the way ? What ages are we talking about ?

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#179

Post by OmahaBoy69 »

gensym wrote: post #86
johnzim wrote: post #20

As a parent, none of the risks are as profound as that of some other member of the public calling the police to inform on your “dangerous parenting”. I’ve deliberately chosen to live in a walkable part of the Bay Area in the hopes that my kids can be more independent when they get older, but I’m more worried about the social pushback than I am about their safety.

Yep. I used to be park of a park advisory council in Chicago. At one meeting, police were there to field questions about park safety. One of the attendees mentioned their concern for the times they saw "unsupervised 10-year-olds" playing in the neighborhood park. The cop encouraged the person to call 911 when they observed that happening! In Chicago, it's pretty much illegal to be a kid without an adult present in mo…

>In Chicago, it's pretty much illegal to be a kid without an adult present in most places

Funny story about this. In highschool I had a teacher who lived with her 12 year old daughter in Chicago, where the legal age for leaving your child home alone is 13. If she needed to run errands alone she'd just leave her daughter to do a loop on the L train (which doesn't have as tight age restrictions). Bizarre.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#180

Post by jandrese »

tempnow987 wrote: post #67

Not in the US they can't. "officials placed two brothers into foster care after one, 11, was found playing basketball alone in his own yard." He'd gotten home early from school and his parents came 90 minutes later. He was in his own yard. The family lost their children to foster care. Ironically in foster care ACTUAL abuse rates are pretty darn high! "When Cindy and Fred arrived home they were arrested for child neg…

I have a strong suspicion that "Cindy and Fred" are in fact minorities and this is just plain vanilla southern racism at play. This is the state terrorizing minority communities to remind them who is in charge. That's usually what is going on when you see gross miscarriages of justice like this in the south.
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