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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

#281

Post by chrischen »

beej71 wrote: post #60
fnordpiglet wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A major difference between when I grew up and now is the prevalence of the severely mentally ill living on city streets. Would you send your 5 year old self down the streets of San Francisco or Seattle? As a 45 year old I’m frightened often enough - I can’t imagine my daughter being forced to navigate those situations alone. The assault and murder rates due to the untreated mentally ill in the cities I’ve lived in is…

I know SF in the last decade has gotten pretty bad, but dad also didn't let me walk around SF in the 70s, either. (We didn't live there, we just visited.) Big city life has always been a bit different, so I'd grant an out there for a little more helicoptering. But most of the country isn't SF. (And most of SF isn't SF--if that makes any sense. Sunset isn't the Tenderloin.) In the town I live in now, things are easily…

I know the city has gotten a lot of bad press lately, but I'm pretty sure SF was more dangerous prior to the rich people moving in. It's just that more rich people started complaining after they came. My Uber driver's was always talking about how the high school near Dolores park used to be a gang hotspot or something.

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

#282

Post by throwaway-blaze »

grecy wrote: post #241
tpoacher wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, people would leave the engine running on the car with the keys on, while they popped in the convenience store to buy a quick item. We used to leave the doors and windows wide open at home while taking a nap, to "air the house". Different times.

I live in Canada, both of those examples are extremely common today

Guessing you don't live in a major city. These things would be fine in rural places all over the world.

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

#283

Post by bombcar »

floren wrote: post #192
dqpb wrote: post #159

Off topic: Are there any countries more hostile to pedestrians than the US?

India sure felt like it... no such thing as a sidewalk, and the street is a nightmare of cars, tuktuks dodging around the cars, and motorcycles dodging around the tuktuks and cars. But I was just visiting; maybe if you live there it feels safe, I don't know.

Amusingly as the cars approach infinity they become slower and slower and it becomes relatively easier to navigate them.

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

#284

Post by trophycase »

dionidium wrote: post #198
floren wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting the kids into structured, college-application-fodder activities early enough, so that the kids can get into Stanford and get a job that pays enough so they can repeat the cycle of abuse, err, pattern of success with their kids.

These societal changes extend far beyond the cohort that will attend Ivy League schools.

I think the point was more about it being an arms race where nobody ends up better off but just has to work harder and is more stressed.

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

#285

Post by freyr »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #51
beej71 wrote: post #47

I don't have any kids, so I don't really feel comfortable telling folks how to raise theirs. But I will tell you my perspective. As someone who grew up in the "be back home in time for supper" 1970s, today's world seems completely foreign. When I started kindergarten, Mom walked me to school on the first day so that I'd know the route. And after that I walked to school on my own until I learned to ride a bike. I rode…

A major difference between when I grew up and now is the prevalence of the severely mentally ill living on city streets. Would you send your 5 year old self down the streets of San Francisco or Seattle? As a 45 year old I’m frightened often enough - I can’t imagine my daughter being forced to navigate those situations alone. The assault and murder rates due to the untreated mentally ill in the cities I’ve lived in is…

> Would you send your 5 year old self down the streets of San Francisco or Seattle

No.

And I would avoid raising my kids there to begin with. Those two cities in particular have done everything within their means to alienate families.

I get that some parents believe that exposing their kids to people living in squalor on the street due to mental illness or addiction is an enriching cultural experience, and maybe it is. But I’m going to pass on that.

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

#286

Post by analog31 »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #51
beej71 wrote: post #47

I don't have any kids, so I don't really feel comfortable telling folks how to raise theirs. But I will tell you my perspective. As someone who grew up in the "be back home in time for supper" 1970s, today's world seems completely foreign. When I started kindergarten, Mom walked me to school on the first day so that I'd know the route. And after that I walked to school on my own until I learned to ride a bike. I rode…

A major difference between when I grew up and now is the prevalence of the severely mentally ill living on city streets. Would you send your 5 year old self down the streets of San Francisco or Seattle? As a 45 year old I’m frightened often enough - I can’t imagine my daughter being forced to navigate those situations alone. The assault and murder rates due to the untreated mentally ill in the cities I’ve lived in is…

I don't think real danger completely explains it. I live in a completely tame neighborhood. Kids definitely walk and bike to school. Yet, there is also a much higher prevalence of kids being driven to school than when I was a kid.

And I grew up in true car culture: The coolest kid had a Cobra jacket, which meant his dad worked for Ford. That kid walked to school.

One difference is that there's a lot more car traffic in neighborhoods today.

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

#287

Post by Macha »

V__ wrote: post #130

A lot of interesting discussions are taking place here, but one thing I wonder the most is this: Why is the U.S. and Canada seemingly the only country where this shift took place? Sure, in Europe nowadays more people drive their children to school than before, for whatever reasons, but I have never heard a child or parent get in trouble for being outside by themselves.

It feels like it's happening here too, just some years behind the US. Certainly kids today have much less freedom than I did 25 years ago, even if we're not at the point of protective services taking custody for playing on the street without adults.

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

#288

Post by Macha »

gumby wrote: post #93

Is the HN median age too low to remember being handed some money and told to run down to the corner shop and buy cigarettes?

The "cigarettes" part was gone by the time I was a kid, but being sent down to the shop for milk or something was still a thing.

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

#289

Post by Johnny555 »

beej71 wrote: post #47

I don't have any kids, so I don't really feel comfortable telling folks how to raise theirs. But I will tell you my perspective. As someone who grew up in the "be back home in time for supper" 1970s, today's world seems completely foreign. When I started kindergarten, Mom walked me to school on the first day so that I'd know the route. And after that I walked to school on my own until I learned to ride a bike. I rode…

I rode to junior high, where there was parking for hundreds of bikes. Recently I drove by that school, and the bike racks were gone. This whole concept of waiting in traffic to pick up or drop off your kid wasn't even a thing.

When I was in elementary school (in the 1970's), I thought the school was far away - I rode the bus to school and if my parents had to take me to school or come to school for any reason, they always drove.

It wasn't until I was grown that I realized that the school was only about half a mile from home -- I could have walked there in less time than it took to walk to the bus stop and wait for the bus. There was a 4 lane road between me and the school, but it had a traffic light and a crossing guard could have helped ensure safety.

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

#290

Post by sethammons »

jandrese wrote: post #180
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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