151–160 of 203 posts
I had a similar hiccup when I first came to US when our apt neighbor called cops because my 1 year old was screaming. Crazy, I know.
This country thrives on fear - health, insurance, legal, weapons - the biggest money making industries in US all feed on fear economy.
I don’t know what is up with the USA and its obsession that kids cannot have autonomy. I think many of us grew up where our parents didn’t know our location at all times. My parents used to tell me to be home by a certain time, but I used to roam the neighborhood, go get candy at the gas station, explore the forest. Maybe it is a sign of the eroding social trust in the USA where people do not believe that others in t…
It's not equally distributed. In Boston, MA area kids have as much autonomy as their parents wish to give them AFAIK. It's not uncommon to see 10 year olds in my town nearby they are doing all sorts of biz around town on their own.
It's only middle class neighborhoods and above where people start to have strong reactions to this in a "won't somebody think of the children!!!" sort of way
I don’t know what is up with the USA and its obsession that kids cannot have autonomy. I think many of us grew up where our parents didn’t know our location at all times. My parents used to tell me to be home by a certain time, but I used to roam the neighborhood, go get candy at the gas station, explore the forest. Maybe it is a sign of the eroding social trust in the USA where people do not believe that others in t…
yep, we're old fogies now. at age 9 my best friend and i would ride our bikes about 5 miles to the beach. no cell phones. no arrests. no problems. we'd ride our gas-powered scooters to the gas station for slushies. we too played in the woods. i don't understand what changed or why kids today can't do anything on their own. it does not seem good for their development, which in turn does not seem good for the future of…
another random andecdote: my older brother, probably 11 or 12 at the time, got in a lot of trouble with my mom and they had a big fight. my mom just straight up kicked him out of the house with no shoes, and literally walked barefoot over several miles to his friend's house.
reflecting on that gives me a lot of introspection to the nature of the parenting i received.
I don’t know what is up with the USA and its obsession that kids cannot have autonomy. I think many of us grew up where our parents didn’t know our location at all times. My parents used to tell me to be home by a certain time, but I used to roam the neighborhood, go get candy at the gas station, explore the forest. Maybe it is a sign of the eroding social trust in the USA where people do not believe that others in t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 80 km/h road Non-American detected Please use Google Street View on the roads coming in to Mineral Bluffs, Ga, USA. No bike lines, and we're not even keen on emergency shoulder for cars and trucks!
Please use Google street view in any small town around the world and notice the prevalence of foot traffic. Even on roads with no shoulder, bike lane, sidewalk or similar. I've walked to school since I was 6 on roads not too dissimilar.
1. Study the width of the oversize vehicle here[1].
2. Study the lack of shoulder next to this guard rail[2].
No parent in their right mind is going to be comfortable letting a six year-old walk that, in any decade. And no municipality is going to let school buses drop kids at arbitrary parts of that highway, unless the driver is dumping them into a residential side-street.
I'm glad you survived walking on streets like this when you were six, but that's not relevant to these highways being dangerous places for regular (or irregular) foot traffic.
1: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.9150284,-84.2767414,3a,75y,2...
2: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.91672,-84.2760891,3a,75y,317...
America wonders how they produce these safe space snowflakes and this is absolutely the attitude that causes it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hate to ask but are you a person of color? My brown friends have been pulled over and stopped while just walking around many more times than me (plain white dude). I have been pulled over one time in my life and never so much as had more more than a “hi how are you doing?”from a cop on the street.
FWIW I had my car get totaled while I was a freshman in college and walked to it the day after. Cops stopped me 3 times on approx a 6mi walk, wouldn't leave me the fuck alone until I pulled out ID. I'm white and this was in NJ, we are not a stop and identify state. Apparently teen walking down the road with a backpack in middle of day is suspicious. This was around 17 years ago, cant imagine how ridiculous it is now.
I don’t know what is up with the USA and its obsession that kids cannot have autonomy. I think many of us grew up where our parents didn’t know our location at all times. My parents used to tell me to be home by a certain time, but I used to roam the neighborhood, go get candy at the gas station, explore the forest. Maybe it is a sign of the eroding social trust in the USA where people do not believe that others in t…
yep, we're old fogies now. at age 9 my best friend and i would ride our bikes about 5 miles to the beach. no cell phones. no arrests. no problems. we'd ride our gas-powered scooters to the gas station for slushies. we too played in the woods. i don't understand what changed or why kids today can't do anything on their own. it does not seem good for their development, which in turn does not seem good for the future of…
Keep in mind that the "majority of people" are not informed skeptics like you and me, they can barely use a computer and largely believe what biased mass media tells them to believe.
At least that's how I feel about it, you don't have to agree.