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HelpI read the article ...
in reply to a message by Paul
And all I can say is that, even for those more naive times, those parents were idiots.
I mean, they let their three kids go to the beach by themselves, trusting a damn nine-year-old to keep a seven and four year old safe? And they don't even set a firm time for when they're too come home, just either the noon bus or the two PM bus.
And the mail carrier sees them strolling along laughing when they're an hour late home, and people wonder why they were not in a hurry to get home? Hello, it's because they're all under ten years old!
Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you criticize him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes!
Steve Martin
I mean, they let their three kids go to the beach by themselves, trusting a damn nine-year-old to keep a seven and four year old safe? And they don't even set a firm time for when they're too come home, just either the noon bus or the two PM bus.
And the mail carrier sees them strolling along laughing when they're an hour late home, and people wonder why they were not in a hurry to get home? Hello, it's because they're all under ten years old!
Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you criticize him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes!
Steve Martin
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This is a names board and not a board on missing kids.... but I'll say this, different time and different way of life. I grew up in a town in Madrid, Spain, and at the age of 4 I walked to school quite a way by myself and that was normal, and not uncommon, for kids to do. No one batted and eye. You don't know how life was like then there.
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maybe I dont ...
But I do know that the beach is not a safe place for kids to play unsupervised, and that lifeguards are not babysitters, and that even well-behaved nine-year-olds are not responsible enough to mother two younger kids when they too are expecting to be able to play and talk with friends, and that kids that age bicker and fight with each other and that a nine-year-old doesn't have the clout to make them do anything or stop doing anything if their parents aren't around, and is just as likely to sink to their level and get into the squabble.
But I do know that the beach is not a safe place for kids to play unsupervised, and that lifeguards are not babysitters, and that even well-behaved nine-year-olds are not responsible enough to mother two younger kids when they too are expecting to be able to play and talk with friends, and that kids that age bicker and fight with each other and that a nine-year-old doesn't have the clout to make them do anything or stop doing anything if their parents aren't around, and is just as likely to sink to their level and get into the squabble.
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You are right. I am sure they feel horrible and have regrets.
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Since we're already off topic: My sister and I have spoken about the fact that when I was five years old, in 1965, I started walking to school and back totally unsupervised. I just now looked up the distance between where we lived and the school, and it's only half a mile. However, it required walking to the end of our street, which was already well out of sight of our house, turning left onto another street, right onto another, and left onto yet another. There was a crossing guard to assist children across the one semi-busy intersection on the route.
And it wasn't just me. All of the kids walked to school unsupervised. There were no busses and no parents lined up in cars to drop off and pick up. The only time parents would drive their kids was when it was raining, and even then, some didn't drive, but instead put the kids in raincoats and gave them umbrellas and they walked as usual.
Nevertheless, my sister and I, by the time we became mothers in the 1970s and 1980s, would never have allowed this.
I don't know if the dangers have actually increased or if it's just our perceptions of possible dangers that increased, perhaps unrealistically. We just know that we could never allow this as our parents did.
And it wasn't just me. All of the kids walked to school unsupervised. There were no busses and no parents lined up in cars to drop off and pick up. The only time parents would drive their kids was when it was raining, and even then, some didn't drive, but instead put the kids in raincoats and gave them umbrellas and they walked as usual.
Nevertheless, my sister and I, by the time we became mothers in the 1970s and 1980s, would never have allowed this.
I don't know if the dangers have actually increased or if it's just our perceptions of possible dangers that increased, perhaps unrealistically. We just know that we could never allow this as our parents did.
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I grew up in the '90s, and I would ride my bike to the corner store or the playground by myself all the time by the time I was eight or so. Of course we lived in a very small town where everyone knew everyone so I think people were more trusting there.
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Despite what some people tend to think, kids still do walk to school and back. Enough so that all the schools my own daughter has gone to have specific times and doors that walkers are supposed to use to leave, so they aren't in the way of the buses or the cars picking kids up.
But my objection wasn't to the kids walking someplace alone. It was specifically the beach, which is not safe for little kids without supervision, even if you don't count the danger of abduction. And the fact that they were being allowed to be away from home without supervision for several hours, and didn't have a firm time when they were supposed to come home, is also worrisome.
But my objection wasn't to the kids walking someplace alone. It was specifically the beach, which is not safe for little kids without supervision, even if you don't count the danger of abduction. And the fact that they were being allowed to be away from home without supervision for several hours, and didn't have a firm time when they were supposed to come home, is also worrisome.
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I went to school in the 1990s and did this. I agree with what you said. I stayed home as a child too.
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