11–20 of 105 posts
I moved to Texas for university, and people looked at me funny because I preferred to bike around if it was less than a couple miles.
The only times cops were involved were when someone called them. Cops would show up, talk to us, then leave once they knew we weren't making trouble and were safe. Never followed up on us or our parents. The only scary situation is once we were playing paintball and someone said a bunch of kids with guns are running around, cops showed up, searched us then went home laughing.
I think the difference today is all related to liability and the helicopter culture it created. Maybe the cops are just CYAing themselves by involving CPS. Maybe the cops didn't like the parents attitude and involved CPS. There is a huge stigma today about being up your kids ass and if you're not, you're a bad parent. Politicians and the media bank big time on pushing these "morals" and punishing anyone who thinks differently. It's not something that will be fixed tomorrow.
I look at the kids in my neighborhood and I feel sad for them. They wont have the experience I had. I am sure everyone feels that way though, the only difference is 15 years ago no one was going to jail or losing their kids over politics.
My comment is a little all-over-the-place but my point is, raising a kid in America is too dangerous of a risk for me and it's a sad thing to think about. The cultural fixes are all very obvious but then what will the news talk about? What will politicians campaign about? How can our leaders show they are "tough on the issues" unless they are relentlessly hammering insanity?
I always think of a quote from The Other Guys when topics like this come up because the solution is so obviously simple but so obviously never going to happen...
Gamble: What about nine million socially-conscious and unified citizens, all just stepping up and doing their part?
However, some states are still ruled by people who want to teach creationism, or legislate that pi is 3, because America values freedom to ignore observable evidence in favor of opinion.
How 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.
How 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…
Edit: Also, I think some of the safety culture comes from diminishing returns. E.g., in the 1950s industrial workplace safety was extremely poor by modern standards. But the people who worked there had just been through world war II, so the risk must have seemed low by comparison. Similarly, the 1990s probably had a bunch of risks which we have solved now---e.g. cars are safer now, and violent crime is lower. So we start worrying about higher-hanging fruit, such as children's commute to school.
From an objective perspective, it really does look like we're trying to breed the most narrow minded, most uninquisitive, most docile versions of ourselves possible and I'm mortified by this trend.
I'm pretty happy I didn't grow up in a nanny state where I'd have been more or less confined to the house or where my mom would have had to give up her job just so we could be sheparded to school and back twice per day.
This was all around 1971, I'm not sure how many parents let their children that age walk alone to school in Amsterdam today. Traffic is much heavier than it was back then (more cars, comparatively fewer bicycles) and definitely more aggressive. Still, people respect the traffic lights (especially cars, bicycles less so) and I'm pretty sure that that route could be walked safely by a 6 and a 4 year old with proper instruction and a parent that has confidence in their abilities.
Whatever would happen I doubt that that parent would be investigated for neglect. In Canada (or so I was told) leaving your 10 year old unattended in the house could lead to trouble with child protection services.