This whole sensationalist media-created myth that theres a sweaty, panting child molester in a trench coat hiding behind every tree just waiting to pounce on your kids if you take your eyes off them for even one second has officially gone too far. Contrary to the impression that you might get from cable news, soberly compiled statistics definitively show that streets are safer today than they were twenty years ago, and child abductions by actual strangers (as opposed to parental abductions in custody disputes) have always been exceedingly rare. Im from the latchkey kid generation and am pretty sure that when my brother and I were this kids age, we frequently walked (or rode our bikes) home from school, and during summer vacation spent the entire day wandering the neighborhood, climbing trees, catching snakes, building forts and throwing dirt clods at one another in empty lots. Yes, there was some danger involved (Ive got a scar on my upper lip from taking a shovel to the face at age 10 or so when a friend and I were digging a ditch for our fort or something), but the confidence and independence we learned are invaluable. Kids these days can spend their entire childhoods without a single moment of play unsupervised by their helicopter parents, and I think thats not only sad, but has profound psychological and developmental implications.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 02:53:58 +0000
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