Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
washingtonpost.com
Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
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Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#2I remembered a website with a visual illustration of how much the walking range of children has declined in Britain during four generations of a family living in the same town. The map, based on where the great-grandfather, grandfather, mother, and son in the same family walked, shows a stark narrowing in how far children walk on their own.[1] In my town, in Minnesota in the United States, I walked regularly on the city trail system with my children to the county library branch (about a mile away, in one direction from our home) or to the shopping district (about a mile away in the other direction on our same city trail system). All of my children have been able to do those walks on their own, or with an older sibling accompanying a younger sibling, for a long time. My children can be out and about in our neighborhood without anyone hassling them. It should be that way for more children. Most cities in the United States these days are objectively safe enough for children to walk outdoors alone at the ages described in the article kindly submitted here (I don't know specifically about that part of greater DC in suburban Maryland,[2] but I would guess it is safe enough too), and children are better off walking and exploring more rather than being confined indoors or in cars on parental drives to other buildings all day.
AFTER EDIT: Many comments posted after mine here was posted are bemoaning the lack of freedom children have to roam outside today, but that remains to be proven. I think the most astute comments here point out that we really don't know whether there are a lot of external pressures on parents to keep their children from walking outside alone, or just a change in parenting practices that makes that less common. I can testify that here in Minnesota, my children are far from the only children who walk outside by themselves at the ages reported in the news anecdote here. Compared to my childhood growing up not far from where I live now, I think children spend too much time indoors in general, and not enough time outside, but I have no fear of the police or the child protection authorities here when my children are outside. We are homeschoolers, so my children have spent a lot of time outdoors during normal school hours. That has never been a problem here, as everyone knows that homeschooling is legal in Minnesota. My children have often walked to the public library by themselves during school hours. New parents (some of the commenters on this thread) need not be afraid of bringing up their children to take walks by themselves outdoors.
[1] http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/571-the-great-indoors-or-ch...
[2] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Woodside+Park,+Silver+Spri...
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#3Stay indoors citizen. It is for your protection.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#4"The first day of term coincided with the 1926 General Strike in Britain, but he was so determined to attend that he rode his bicycle unaccompanied more than 60 miles (97 km) from Southampton to Sherborne, stopping overnight at an inn."
That's Alan Turing, aged 13.
I used to walk home from school middle school across the centre of the town I lived in. That was about 1.5 miles. Was not considered weird or dangerous.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#5How odd. America is much safer than it used to be, but people are more afraid.
My father walked to and from school every day in Montreal when he was young, for a good half hour each way I believe. He'd go in a group with kids from the neighborhood, there were no adults.
I walked to school every morning in Canada starting from age six, alone. I didn't live far from school, but if I had lived further I still would have walked alone. Lots of kids in my neighborhood walked alone. This was the early 1990s.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#6Reading this, I felt real anger at our society. I have 1 year old twin girls and I am genuinely scared and saddened by the limitations that paranoid adults are going to put on us as parents, and them as children. We live in a world driven by fear detached from the real risks and joys of life.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#7> Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek…
'Trek'? It was a mile walk! Not a big deal.
This country has become insane.
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#8I am looking for a house in part based on the criteria of letting my (future) children be able to get on transit or their bike and be independent as soon as reasonable. There is no reason I need to be in a helicopter over the children until they are 16 or whenever the government lets them drive.
With respect to kidnapping, abuse, etc, the larger danger is friends and family, not strangers. It is a fact that America is much closer to 1950s levels of safety in the 2010s.
John Paul Jones joined the Navy at 13. Why hold your children back?
edit: I see these stories come out of NYC, DC, etc. Are there similar reports from places that are, ahem, more known for freedom, i.e., Utah, Wyoming, etc?
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#9I grew up in Manhattan in 80's, early 90's... by 4th grade/age 10 pretty much the whole class came to school by themselves - there is no school bus service in Manhattan kids get buss passes (handed out at school) to use on the buses and subways...
Additionally, most of our parents gave us $5-10 dollars that we were not to spend but keep with us at all time as "mugging money" - so that we had something to give up if we were mugged.
Apparently, a whole generation of parents were "neglecting" their kids...
Re: Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone
#10How odd. America is much safer than it used to be, but people are more afraid. My father walked to and from school every day in Montreal when he was young, for a good half hour each way I believe. He'd go in a group with kids from the neighborhood, there were no adults. I walked to school every morning in Canada starting from age six, alone. I didn't live far from school, but if I had lived further I still would have…
but people are more afraid.
The media has taught us to be afraid. Not maliciously so. It makes us better consumers, the metric they're paid to optimize.